Tesla has now lost all the gains it accrued since Donald Trump’s November inauguration as U.S. President.
In a staggering stock sell-off on Monday, Tesla’s market value crashed by 15%, wiping out $127 billion in a single day. The crash pushed Tesla’s total losses for 2025 to over 40%, underscoring deeper troubles for the Electric Vehicle (EV) maker, as well as a growing competition in the Chinese EV market.
Since its peak at $479.86 on December 17, Tesla shares have lost more than 50% of their value, where over $800 billion was wiped out in its market capitalisation.
China EV stocks, on the other hand, had a relatively good day. Chinese EV giant BYD recorded a 1.3% increase in Hong Kong, bringing its year-to-date gains to just over 35%. Li Auto, a major producer of Plug-in hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), rose 2.3%. Xpeng’s Hong Kong shares also jumped an impressive 8.7%, one day after the chairman said the Chinese EV maker will start mass producing its flying car by 2026, according to Bloomberg.
As such, there’s a split in analysts’ views on this incident. Some analysts have attributed this stock crash to the recent tariff imposition placed on Chinese imports by President Trump, while some claim that it is due to a statement Elon Musk made on X (fka Twitter) attributing USAID funding to the creation of a “bioweapon research, including COVID-19” in Wuhan Lab.
This might have led to a drastic decline of the support Musk had managed to acquire in the Chinese EV Market, seeing as the post went viral on Chinese social media with people claiming that Musk was trying to reopen old wounds about the origin of the deadly virus, according to the South China Morning Post.
In fact, during a morning brief with CPCA Secretary General Cui Dongshu, according to Bloomberg, he says, “As a successful businessman, one should be embracing 100% of the market: Treat everyone nicely, and everyone will be nice in return.” The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) is in charge of tracking car sales in the world’s second-largest economy.
In addition to the current Tesla woes, Musk’s social media network X suffered a recent outage that lasted over 24 hours. His aerospace company, SpaceX also suffered a setback when its flagship spacecraft, Starship, exploded in space during its eighth test flight.
CEO Elon Musk, who was one of the biggest funders of Donald Trump’s election campaign, was appointed Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) right after Trump inauguration as U.S. President. As such, it is possible that he might be struggling to effectively manage these companies all at the same time.
Following Tesla’s stock sell-off on Monday, when asked how he runs all his businesses in an interview with Fox Business, he says “with great difficulty.”
However, he is confident that Tesla will still yield long-term profit. In response to an X post highlighting how Monday’s loss is one for the books, Musk says, “It [Tesla] will be fine long term.”
