Tesla electric vehicles are parked in a parking lot at the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg factory.
Patrick Pleul | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Shares of Tesla slipped further on Friday, making it appear as if investors had taken profits from the electric car maker’s rapid rally after the US election.
Around 6 a.m. ET, the company’s shares fell 5% in U.S. premarket trading, extending losses from earlier in the week. On Wednesday, Tesla shares plunged 8%, posting their worst day on record Donald Trump’s Victory in the presidential election in November.
Trump’s victory sparked a sharp rise in Tesla shares as investors increased bets that the electric vehicle maker would benefit thanks to its CEO Elon Musk’s close ties to the president-elect. The stock is still up nearly 76% year to date.
Musk was appointed by Trump to co-head the newly created group Ministry of Government Efficiencyalso referred to as “DOGE”. The acronym of the proposed Presidential Advisory Commission shares the same name as the internet meme that inspired the so-called “memecoin” cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.
Dogecoin the price skyrocketed for a short time after the creation of the body.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, Musk was one of Trump’s top supporters in the Republican’s campaign, investing $277 million primarily in his campaign. Musk is the one the richest person in the worldwith a net worth of $439.4 billion, according to Forbes data.
Last month, Bloomberg News reported that Trump’s transition team plans to create a federal framework to regulate self-driving vehicles.
Tesla and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on the report.
If true, the move would provide a major boost to Musk’s EV company. Tesla is betting its future on the idea of rolling out mass fleets of autonomous vehicles, so-called “robotaxi” services. At the company’s “We Robot” event in October, Musk presented introduced the company’s Cybercab self-driving concept car.
Tesla has Musk’s promise to offer truly autonomous vehicles has yet to be fulfilled. Autopilot and Tesla’s paid “Full Self-Driving” services still require a human behind the wheel to monitor the system’s actions and take over if necessary.
In other Tesla-related news, data released Thursday by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association showed that Tesla car sales fell 40.9% in November, extending the region’s overall decline in battery electric car (BEV) sales by 9, 5% exceeded.
