Tesla's board chair says no restraints on Elon Musk's political activities
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Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm during a Bloomberg Television interview Friday. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Tesla's board chair suggested Friday that there are no restraints on Elon Musk's political activities, and that he'll be measured "on results, and what he does as CEO of Tesla."
Why it matters: Chair Robyn Denholm dismissed questions in a Bloomberg Television interview related to what many analysts have suggested — whether Musk's political activity over the past year had negatively impacted Tesla's EV sales.
Zoom in: "What he does from a personal perspective in terms of his political motivations is up to him," Denholm said.
- Tesla's strategy is to keep Musk focused and motivated front and center at the company, she said. And the target-laden compensation package the company has proposed for him is a tool designed to meet that goal — a potentially $1 trillion carrot to occupy an "outsized proportion" of Musk's time, effort and energy on Tesla for the next 10 years.
State of play: Tesla's annual vehicle deliveries declined in 2024, a slump many attribute in part to a backlash over Musk's political turn. That included heavy campaigning for President Trump, a controversial period leading the Department of Government Efficiency and then a public fallout with the president over the country's budgeting priorities.
- Over that period, Tesla has ceded market share to other manufacturers. In August its share of sales dropped below 40% for the first time since 2017.
The big picture: While much has been made about Musk's robot and AI-filled future for Tesla, Denholm reiterated the importance of selling cars, calling the company's EV business "the mainstay of our business today."
- One of the targets set in the comp package is Tesla delivering another 12 million vehicles by 2035, up from the 8 million it has sold to date.
- Despite Musk's repeated past promises to sell 20 million cars in a single year, Tesla delivered just under 1.8 million EVs in 2024.
The bottom line: Tesla's board is convinced that Elon Musk is the best person to deliver value for Tesla. Keeping him focused is its biggest challenge.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Musk fell out with Trump over a disagreement over the budgeting priorities of the country (not of the company).
