Tesla: 30 billion bonus for Musk as BYD overtakes. US maxi-fine

Tesla's board of directors is betting everything on Elon Musk. The board has approved a new maxi-share package worth almost $30 billion for the CEO, in an attempt to armour him at the helm of the company at an extremely delicate time. But around Musk, the Tesla world is becoming more and more slippery: customer loyalty is plummeting, sales are slowing, particularly in China, and in the United States a 243 million dollar sentence has been handed down for a fatal accident linked to the ever-discussed Autopilot, the driving assistance software that in its most advanced version, Full Self-Driving, is the basis of Musk's bet on the autonomous driving business.

The newly approved award - 96 million shares - traces the 2018 agreement, later cancelled in December 2024 by a Delaware court for serious irregularities in the approval process. Musk has appealed, but in the meantime the company has decided to go ahead with a new allocation, justifying it with the need to 'incentivise him to stay focused on Tesla', after a political interlude that has brought no good, indeed, has damaged the brand.

A move that already had an initial effect in yesterday's session, pushing the stock (-24% since the start of the year) into positive territory. But the context remains complicated and uncertain. Tesla is increasingly associated with the - often divisive - figure of its CEO. After his endorsement of Donald Trump, the loyalty of American customers has plummeted. According to S&P Global Mobility, the rate of customers buying a Tesla again fell from 73% to 49.9% in less than a year. And the net flow of new customers has also dropped dramatically. Today, brands such as Rivian and Polestar manage to attract more Tesla customers than they give up.

The problem is not only American. Tesla is suffering in Europe, as evidenced by the figures of the last few months (-45%, with Chinese BYD overtaking it in April), including the latest registrations in Sweden, Denmark and France. On Tuesday, 5 July, confirmation came from the British market: sales of new Teslas in the UK fell by almost 60 per cent to 987 units in July compared to a year earlier, according to figures released by the trade association Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (Smmt). Registrations also halved in Germany. While BYD is advancing at a fast pace. Some analysts predict that the Chinese manufacturer will overtake Tesla globally for the entire year, and this without BYD cars being available in Tesla's home market, the United States.

In Germany, Europe's largest car market and home to Tesla's only assembly plant near Berlin, BYD - which is also grappling with a decline in global production - surpassed the Texan brand in sales for the third time this year in July. In the UK, BYD registered more than six times as many vehicles as the total achieved up to July last year. This brought its market share to 1.91 per cent year-on-year, only a tenth of a percentage point less than Tesla's share.