Tesla shares extended last week’s decline on Monday morning, trading below $382 for the first time in nearly six months.
Shares of the Elon Musk-led company fell more than 3% to a new five-month low of $381.40 during early trading, after slipping to $378.30 in the first minutes of the pre-market trading session.
The stock consistently traded above $400 from late November, before reaching a new all-time high of $498.83 in late December and dropping below the $400 level last month.
Tesla is experiencing a significant drop in vehicle sales across most of the largest automotive markets despite recent updates to its lineup.
The company is meanwhile pressing forward with its autonomous ambitions — including the Cybercab production kickoff in April and the upcoming V3 of the Optimus humanoid robot, both of which investors see as key to the company’s long-term valuation.
At the same time, a Reuters report over the weekend said new tensions between China and Dutch chipmaker Nexperia could trigger another global semiconductor supply chain crisis, according to China’s Commerce Ministry.
As of press time, the company was trading 2% lower at $388.
Weak Sales
Tesla’s US vehicle sales fell year over year for the fifth straight month in February, totaling 38,500 units.
The third quarter marked a period of growth as demand surged ahead of the federal EV tax credit deadline, on September 30.
Last month, the company introduced a cheaper version of the Cybertruck in its domestic market, priced from $59,990.
The price was hiked by $10,000 last week. Customers now ordering the vehicle can expect delivery in “2027,” signaling strong demand for the variant.
Tesla also recently debuted the seven-seat Model Y in both the US and Europe, following the ‘Standard’ version — now called simply Rear-Wheel Drive — launched late last year for both the best-selling SUV and the Model 3 sedan.
In Norway, the company regained its position as the best-selling brand last month.
February figures also improved year over year in major markets, such as France and Germany. Last year, sales fell as Tesla was switching production to the refreshed Model Y.
Progress Towards Autonomy
Musk said earlier this year it’s “probably true” that people will forget Tesla ever built cars after the company launches the Optimus V3, which is scheduled for later this year.
The humanoid robot will be built at GigaTexas, on the manufacturing lines formerly dedicated to production of the Model S and Model X.
Last week, the CEO wrote on X that it was “important to order Model S or Model X before production stops to make way for the Optimus factory in a few months.”
The company has not yet revealed a concrete timeline for the end of production.
At the same time, it is preparing to begin production of the fully autonomous Cybercab in April, after the first unit rolled off the production line last month.
The model will be used in the company’s Robotaxi service, which it intends to expand in the US throughout the year.
FSD Deployment
Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk revealed in late January that Full Self-Driving (FSD) is now “100% unsupervised.”
By then, the chief executive confirmed that the company had removed the chase vehicles that had accompanied early robotaxi trips operating without safety monitors earlier this year.
He flagged, however, that Tesla was “just being very cautious with the rollout” for customers.
Tesla‘s VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy wrote on X this weekend that the FSD’s “upcoming tech will make it even more” transformative, commenting on a post that said it would be the most “impressive tech creation” of the century.
The company is approaching the deadline to submit critical data to the NHTSA, after the regulator opened a probe into its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software for potential traffic violations.
Earlier this year, the company asked for extra time to review the data before submission.
By then, the company highlighted the strain of dealing with multiple NHTSA investigations simultaneously, including separate probes into delayed crash reporting and defective door handles.
The probe focuses on reports of FSD-equipped cars running red lights, not respecting speed limits under the new ‘Mad Max’ driving mode, and entering opposing lanes, among other situations.
Investors are closely monitoring the filing, the results of which could trigger a recall of the software or delay the high-stakes production of the Cybercab.
Failure to comply with the deadline could result in civil penalties of nearly $28,000 per day, totaling up to $139.4 million.
