Washington:
Elon Musk will considerably reduce his Trump administration work in May to concentrate on Tesla, the billionaire announced on Tuesday, because the maker of electrical vehicles reported a decrease of 71 percent in the profit of the first quarter.
“Probably in the following month, my time allocation will decrease considerably,” said Musk at the start of an income conference, referring to his work for the “Department of Government Efficiency”.
The comments when Tesla reported the $ 409 million profit after a decrease in car sales that analysts said that the brand damage was reflected as a result of Musk's work for President Donald Trump when reducing the American federal workforce.
The turnover fell nine percent to $ 19.3 billion.
The company withdrew from the 2025 guidelines and quoted unpredictability about trade policy and demand.
“Uncertainty on car and energy markets continues to increase as the quickly evolving trading policy the global supply chain and the cost structure of Tesla and our colleagues adversely affects,” the company said.
“This dynamic, along with the changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on the demand for our products in the short term.”
On the positive side, Tesla said that it was on its way to launch new vehicles “including more affordable models” in the first half of 2025.
Tesla also confirmed in a press release that a planned launch of his robotaxi for autonomous driving in Texas in June remained “on the track”.
Musk repeated his bullish look at the long -term perspectives for Tesla and emphasized leadership in important growth areas: robotics, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.
– Doge work 'mostly done' – –
Musk, the world's richest person, donated more than $ 270 million to the presidential campaign of Trump 2024.
Analysts have warned of considerable brand damage to Tesla for the leading role of Musk in Doge, who has gave itself access to government databases with sensitive personal information and has implemented thousands of job losses.
The commotion for US government activities has led to questions about programs such as the Social Security Retirement Benefit and the continuation of programs such as hurricane forecast and humanitarian aid.
Since Trump returned to the White House, Tesla has been the target of boycots and vandalism, while the sale has dived in many markets and the prices of used Teslas have fallen in a sign of the unpopularity of the brand.
During the call, Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja described the reaction as “unjustified hostility to our brand.”
In his opening commentary, Musk defended his work for Doge and defeated critics as “paid” beneficiaries of the “waste and fraud” that he claims.
But Musk said that the work was 'usually ready' for doge, and added that he would not leave the government work completely.
“I think I will continue to spend a day or two a week on government affairs, or as long as the president would like me to do that, and as long as it is useful,” said Musk.
“But from next month I will allocate much more of my time to Tesla.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, an old Backer from Tesla who called on Musk to wrap his doge work, praised the announcement of the CEO.
“Musk has just taken a huge step forward on call,” said Ives on X. “Doge work actually ended (1-2 days a week) … Now his focus was back on Tesla. (Wall) Street had to hear this.”
In addition to the image, Tesla pointed to rates as a different headwind for the company, while noticing that the EV maker is better located than rivals that are extensively dependent on imported vehicles in the United States.
The Trump administration has set 25 percent rates for imported cars.
“I will weigh with my advice with president, which he will listen to … But then of course it is up to him to make his decision,” said Musk about Trump.
“I have often been on the record to say that I believe that lower rates are generally a good idea for prosperity.”
Tesla shares rose by 4.7 percent on the trade after hours.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by Our staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
