One analyst who has been a long-standing Tesla (TSLA) bull has significantly cut his price target on the company’s stock, citing recent backlash against CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, though he also notes that his firm remains bullish.

In a note to clients on Sunday, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said that the firm lowered its price target on Tesla’s stock from $550 to $315, maintaining an Outperform rating. The analyst says that the 43-percent cut is the result of a “full-blown brand crisis” that was caused by Musk, and that, combined with the Trump administration’s global tariffs, the two have created the “perfect storm for Tesla.”

“Tesla has essentially become a political symbol globally….and that is a very bad thing for the future of this disruptive tech stalwart and the brand crisis tornado that has now turned into an F5 tornado,” Ives wrote. “We now estimate Tesla has lost/destroyed at least 10 percent of its future customer base globally based on self created brand issues and this could be a conservative estimate. In Europe, this number could be 20 percent or higher….all self-inflicted by Musk.”

READ MORE ON TESLA/WEDBUSH: Tesla bull Wedbush responds to Q1 deliveries: ‘A disaster on every metric’

Ives continues on that the company has “unfortunately become a political symbol because of Musk,” highlighting the global anti-Trump and Musk protests, and vandalism that many have lodged against owners of Tesla’s vehicles in recent months.

He also acknowledged that Tesla would be “less exposed to tariffs than some” that source a higher portion of vehicle components abroad, though the tariffs are still widely expected to disrupt the company. The analyst notes that Tesla’s continued performance in China will remain “the bigger worry,” as tariff backlash could also drive consumers even further toward domestic options such as BYD, Nio, or Xpeng Motors.

Ives also called for Musk to “step up, read the room, and be a leader” during this time, noting that this year could be particularly painful for the stock if he does not “exit stage left or take a step back on DOGE in the coming month.”

also acknowledges certain upcoming bright spots for the stock, including unsupervised Full Self-Driving rolling out this summer and lower-cost models.

“Our long standing bull view of Tesla remains, but there is no denying this is a pivotal moment of truth for Musk to turn things around…or darker days are ahead,” the analyst adds. “We have been one of the biggest supporters of Musk and Tesla over the last decade….but this situation is not sustainable and the brand of Tesla is suffering by the day as a political symbol.

“Musk has been with his back against the wall many times and every time Tesla came out of it and was stronger on the other side…this may be one of his biggest challenges yet to turn around.”

Ives has been a longtime supporter of Musk and Tesla, and he has held one of the highest price targets on the company for the past several months. In January, Ives bumped his Tesla price target from $515 to $550, along with setting a bull-case price target of $650. As for his reasoning, he noted that the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) rollout would likely be fast-tracked by the Trump administration, adding that the firm was confident in 2025 demand.

You can read a longer excerpt from the Sunday note from Ives below.

The bigger worry in our opinion is Tesla’s success in China as this key region is the linchpin to the future success of Tesla. The backlash from Trump tariff policies in China and Musk’s association will be hard to understate and this will further drive Chinese consumers to buy domestic such as BYD, Nio, Xpeng, and others. Tesla has essentially become a political symbol globally….and that is a very bad thing for the future of this disruptive tech stalwart and the brand crisis tornado that has now turned into an F5 tornado. We now estimate Tesla has lost/destroyed at least 10 percent of its future customer base globally based on self created brand issues and this could be a conservative estimate. In Europe, this number could be 20 percent or higher….all self-inflicted by Musk.

Tesla has unfortunately become a political symbol because of Musk and this is a very bad thing for the future of this technology stalwart. With major protests erupting globally at Tesla dealerships, Tesla cars being keyed, and a full brand crisis tornado turning into a life of its own this has cast a dark black cloud over Tesla’s stock. The future is so bright for Tesla with Austin’s unsupervised FSD, lower-cost vehicles, and of course the autonomous and robotics future….but this is a full blown crisis Tesla is navigating now (along with these tariffs), and it is time for Musk to step up, read the room, and be a leader in this time of uncertainty.

For the stock, the demand destruction for Tesla and brand damage is real and has morphed into something much more concerning over the past few months. The 1Q delivery number was a disaster as we discussed last week but this could be a brutal year ahead if Musk does not exit stage left or take a step back on DOGE in the coming month. We are taking a stab at new reduced estimates for 2025/2026 which could be a moving target with the tariffs, retaliatory, and the China wild card.

Our long standing bull view of Tesla remains, but there is no denying this is a pivotal moment of truth for Musk to turn things around…or darker days are ahead. We have been one of the biggest supporters of Musk and Tesla over the last decade….but this situation is not sustainable and the brand of Tesla is suffering by the day as a political symbol. Musk has been with his back against the wall many times and every time Tesla came out of it and was stronger on the other side…this may be one of his biggest challenges yet to turn around.

This Tesla executive is leaving the company after over 12 years

Tesla has officially started rolling out a new version of its insurance program’s Safety Scores beta, improving upon a few different metrics that make up the index.

As detailed on the Tesla Insurance web page, the company has updated its Safety Scores to beta version 2.2 from the previous version 2.1. The update primarily includes improvements to how Excessive Speeding is measured, along with the removal of Forward Collision Warnings (FCW) from the formula.

In addition, Tesla has slightly increased the values of related factors such as Hard Braking and Unsafe Following Time in the v2.2 formula, perhaps in an attempt to help accommodate some of the situations previously covered by the FCW rating.

READ MORE ON TESLA INSURANCE: Tesla launches insurance discount for FSD users in these two states

Tesla’s Safety Scores are used to determine premium rates for buyers of the company’s in-house insurance program, except in California, where privacy laws prohibit the use of real-time driving data to determine premiums. The company also says that its latest formula for Safety Scores were generated using over 22 billion miles of fleet data from its cars, while the company plans to continue improving the formula as more data comes in.

At this time, Tesla Insurance is available in the following 12 states, though Safety Scores aren’t available in California for the aforementioned reason:

• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Illinois
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Nevada
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia

You can see the factors that make up Tesla’s Insurance Safety Scores below or on its website here, along with the specific formula that makes up a drivers’ 0 to 100 Safety Score.

Hard Braking

Credit: Tesla

Hard braking is defined as backward acceleration, measured by your Tesla vehicle, in excess of 0.3g. This is the same as a decrease in the vehicle’s speed larger than 6.7 mph, in one second. Hard braking is introduced into the Safety Score ^Beta formula as the proportion of time where the vehicle experiences backward acceleration greater than 0.3g as a percentage of the proportion of time the vehicle experiences backward acceleration greater than 0.1g (2.2 mph in one second). Hard braking while on Autopilot is not factored into the Safety Score ^Beta formula. For vehicles with Autopilot computer 3.0 or greater, braking while the vehicle detects yellow traffic lights is also not factored into the Safety Score ^Beta formula. If the vehicle is unable to detect a yellow traffic light at the time of the hard braking, the event will impact your Safety Score. The percentage shown in the app is the proportion of time spent braking done with excessive force when driving and Autopilot is not engaged. The value is capped at 5.2 percent in the Safety Score ^Beta formula.

Aggressive Turning

Credit: Tesla

Aggressive turning is defined as left/right acceleration, measured by your Tesla vehicle, in excess of 0.4g. This is the same as an increase in the vehicle’s speed to the left/right larger than 8.9 mph, in one second. Aggressive turning is introduced into the Safety Score ^Beta formula as the proportion of time the vehicle experiences left or right acceleration greater than 0.4g as a percentage of the proportion of time the vehicle experiences left or right acceleration greater than 0.2g (4.5 mph in one second). Aggressive turning while on Autopilot is not factored into the Safety Score ^Beta formula. The percentage shown in the Tesla app is the proportion of time spent turning with excessive force when driving and Autopilot is not engaged. The value is capped at 13.2 percent in the Safety Score ^Beta formula.

Unsafe Following

Credit: Tesla

Your Tesla vehicle measures its own speed, the speed of the vehicle in front and the distance between the two vehicles. Based on these measurements, your vehicle calculates the number of seconds you would have to react and stop if the vehicle in front of you came to a sudden stop. This measurement is called “headway.” Unsafe following is the proportion of time where your vehicle’s headway is less than 1.0 seconds relative to the time that your vehicle’s headway is less than 3.0 seconds. Unsafe following is only measured when your vehicle is traveling at least 50 mph and is incorporated into the Safety Score ^Beta formula as a percentage. Unsafe following while on Autopilot is not factored into the Safety Score ^Beta formula. The percentage shown in the Tesla app is the percentage of unsafe following when driving and Autopilot is not engaged. The value is capped at 63.2 percent in the Safety Score ^Beta formula.

Excessive Speeding

Credit: Tesla

Excessive Speeding is defined as the proportion of time spent driving in excess of 85 mph or driving 20% faster than the vehicle in front of you, when that vehicle is going over 25 mph and is within 100 meters of your vehicle. This value is expressed as a percentage of total driving time and is capped at 10.0% in the Safety Score ^Beta formula. Speeding while on Autopilot is not factored into the Safety Score ^Beta formula.

Late-Night Driving

Credit: Tesla

Late-Night Driving is defined as the number of seconds you spend driving at night (11 PM – 4 AM) divided by the number of seconds you spend driving total during the day and night. Due to the variable risk level associated with driving during each late-night hour, each hour is weighed differently, and driving at each hour will affect your Safety Score differently. For example, driving at 11 PM will not affect your Safety Score as heavily as driving at 2 AM. Drive sessions that span two days will apply to the day the trip ends. Late-Night Driving includes all driving at night (11 PM – 4 AM) including any driving done on Autopilot. The value is capped at 14.2 percent in the Safety Score ^Beta formula.

Forced Autopilot Disengagement

Credit: Tesla

The Autopilot system disengages for the remainder of a trip after the driver has received three audio and visual warnings. These warnings occur when your Tesla vehicle has determined that the driver has not applied sufficient resistance to the steering wheel or has become inattentive. Forced Autopilot Disengagement is introduced into the Safety Score ^Beta formula as a 1 or 0 indicator. The value is 1 if the Autopilot system is forcibly disengaged during a trip, and 0 otherwise.

Unbuckled Driving

Credit: Tesla

Unbuckled Driving is defined as the proportion of time spent driving above 10 mph without fastening the driver’s seatbelt in a Tesla vehicle, as a percentage of time spent driving above 10 mph. The value shown in the Tesla app is the proportion of time driven at a speed over 10 mph, without buckling the driver’s seatbelt, as a percentage of time spent driving over 10 mph. The value is capped at 31.7 percent in the Safety Score ^Beta formula.

Tesla’s formula for Safety Score beta v2.2

Tesla takes the formula pictured below, dubbed its Predicted Collision Frequency (PCF), and converts it into the 0 to 100 version 2.2 Safety Score it assigns based on driver behavior. The 2.1 Safety Score formula can also be seen on the Tesla Insurance page, though the below formula is for the newly launched version 2.2.

Credit: Tesla

Tesla posts Q4 2024 vehicle safety report

Tesla has highlighted an important 4680 battery cell milestone in recent weeks, noting that its Texas manufacturing team for the hardware has scaled production enough to outpace the cost-effectiveness of outside suppliers.

During Tesla’s first-quarter all-hands-on-deck meeting held a few weeks ago, CEO Elon Musk shared a number of recent milestones. One of them, as was also reiterated after the meeting by Michael Guilfoy, Tesla’s Giga Texas Director of Cell Manufacturing, is the fact that the company’s in-house 4680 battery cells have earned their place as the lowest-cost battery cell produced per kWh.

Musk also pointed out during the meeting that the achievement is particularly impressive, given that many of the company’s suppliers dedicate all or most of their businesses to battery cell manufacturing, while Tesla focuses on several other business sectors and still managed to surpass the milestone.

Check out Guilfoy’s full message below, as posted on LinkedIn, or watch Tesla’s Q1 all-hands meeting below that.

Been waiting to acknowledge this great achievement by Tesla’s 4680 Cell Manufacturing team since the end of last year….but as Elon announced last night, our Cell Manufacturing team in Texas reached a huge milestone at the end of 2024 with becoming the lowest cost per kWh battery cell producer for Tesla! The grit, determination, and passion of our team is unbelievable in helping deliver our mission.

Big thank you to our entire engineering and production teams for making this happen!! It’s the greatest honor of my career to lead this team and make such an impact in our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

And we aren’t done yet! 2025 will have more big milestones with fully ramped dry battery electrode manufacturing to deliver even more cost efficiency. Exciting teams continue to be ahead. Cheers to this world-class team!

READ MORE ON TESLA’S 4680 BATTERY CELLS: Tesla working on four dry cathode 4680 battery variants: The Information

Although Tesla also sources its 4680 batteries from multiple other suppliers, including Panasonic and LG Energy Solution, the company has also been working to scale up in-house production of the cells over the past few years. In September, Tesla officially surpassed a milestone of producing 100 million 4680 battery cells, after surpassing 50 million last June, and exceeding 20 million in October 2023.

Tesla initially unveiled the 4680 battery cell during a 2020 “Battery Day” event, during which it explained the cost and efficiency benefits of the battery size in comparison with the 2170 form factor.

Tesla loses battle to keep 4680 battery tech under wraps