After receiving a small boost from reports that the electric vehicle giant was making headway on its complete self-driving offerings in China, Tesla Inc.’s stock dropped back to three-month lows on Monday.
The EV manufacturer was preparing to release a software upgrade for its Chinese clients that would provide driver-assistance functions “similar to those marketed as Full Self-Driving in the U.S.” according to a Bloomberg article earlier Monday. One individual with knowledge of the problem was quoted in the news article.
After reaching a peak of 1.4%, Tesla’s shares (TSLA) dropped as much as 3.9% to an intraday low of $324.70, which was close to the lowest closing prices since mid-November.
Since then, it has recovered to trade slightly below the flatline.
Monday’s negative close would be the third consecutive session of losses for the company, which has lost over a third of its value since its record closing high of $479.86 on December 17 and is down roughly 18% this month.
Since late January, it has been difficult for the stock to trade above $400. Investors are concerned that Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is wasting too much time managing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, harming both his and Tesla’s reputations. Recently, demonstrations against DOGE were held in front of Tesla dealerships in a number of cities.
In China, where a number of automakers have offered or intend to offer advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS, for less money and in both luxury and low-cost electric vehicles, full self-driving and Tesla’s suite of advanced driver-assistance capabilities for city driving would face fierce competition.
Earlier this month, China’s BYD Co. (CN:002594) (BYDDY) announced that it would standardize its God’s Eyes technology, even in its most affordable EVs.
There are still a lot of bulls about Tesla. In a report released on Monday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives stated that although Tesla stockholders will concentrate on the DOGE problems and brand concerns, the company’s future remains unchanged.
According to Ives, Tesla is planning a number of catalysts, such as “unsupervised” FSD releases in the United States, “major” product innovations centered around its Optimus humanoid robot, and a new mass-market car launch in the first half of the year.
