Tesla Stumbles, but Elon Musk Gets a Massive Payday

Unless you’ve been purposely hiding from the news — which would be understandable — you know that investors in Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) have had plenty to digest. Between allegations Tesla isn’t paying its bills and hurting small businesses, to facing consumer backlash from CEO Elon Musk’s political tour (and we can’t forget the sliding sales and global profits), it’s been a full downpour. Let’s consider the recent speed bumps, as well as Musk being rewarded with a hefty $29 billion payday.

July figures are seeping in from Europe, and they show that Tesla registrations checked in 41.6% lower compared to the prior year, despite sales of electric vehicles (EVs) surging across the Continent.

It’s a continuation of the sales spiral the EV maker faced during the first half of 2025. And the problem is that the decline was supposedly due to the new Model Y being in limited supply — but the issues appear to be deeper than that.

The story is similar in China, another crucial market for Tesla. Its sales of China-made EVs dropped 8.4% in July compared to the prior year. That was a reversal from the small gain Tesla posted in June, which at the time reversed an eight-month losing streak.

The consumer displeasure is real, and Musk’s political allegiances have pushed some buyers to new and different brands. There’s evidence of the effect this is having on Tesla’s once-spotless brand image, according to new data from S&P Global Mobility, which tracks sales data across the automotive industry.

The new data, shared with Reuters, showed that Tesla’s consumer loyalty took a nosedive in July 2024, correlating with Musk’s public commitment to an anti-environmental political campaign. According to Reuters, Tesla’s loyalty peaked at 73% in June 2024 before bottoming out in March at 49.9%. No matter how you slice it, that’s a quick and dramatic decline in consumer sentiment, literally driving buyers to another brand.

Tesla’s board granted Musk 96 million shares, worth roughly $29 billion, in an attempt to keep the billionaire focused on the EV company amid his multiple businesses and ventures. The vote comes after a 2024 Delaware court ruling that voided Musk’s 2018 compensation package, which was valued at over $50 billion. The court said the approval process was flawed and unfair to shareholders.