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Tesla bull lowers price target citing ‘brand crisis’
Tesla stock could be in trouble if Elon Musk doesn’t “step up and read the room,” according to one longtime bull.
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.”
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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.
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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 released Full Self-Driving version 14.3.6 last week, and after what was potentially one of the best FSD releases in v14.3.5, there has been a bit of a regression. While there are some bright spots, the changes made to v14.3.6 seem to have backtracked some behaviors.
Overall, it is hard to really complain about FSD in any sense; it has revolutionized how I travel literally anywhere. According to my self-driving app, the last time I went a day without using it was 59 days ago.
However, I think it’s also important to recognize when things are just plain bad with FSD. There are times it does truly mind-boggling things, and I’ll dive into those here. Additionally, I only had these issues on local roads, not on highways. Highway operation, generally, is always incredible other than the occasional complaint about speed or left lane camping.
With those things being said, my personal experience may not represent others’ experiences. A handful of people have said they have had a similar experience on v14.3.6, while others have said it is more than normal.
Turning Hesitancy, Inaccuracy
I’ve noticed more inaccuracy turning into multi-lane stretches of road than in any version I can remember. I’ve had at least three instances of FSD turning into a stretch of roadway that has two or more lanes, and not selecting a lane confidently as it has in past versions.
I think Tesla FSD v14.3.6 is a regression from previous .3 branches
This version in particular has been incredibly hesitant, jerky, and indecisive at times. There’s actually been two drives that I have decided to not used FSD for the remainder of the trip. These were local trips… pic.twitter.com/YobHDOKRS6
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 26, 2026
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Instead, the car will drive over one of the dashed road lines, and the steering wheel will jerk back and forth before picking the lane. It should be said that it has always picked the correct lane when choosing based on the navigation, but it is still very indecisive. The steering wheel jerking is reminiscent of some of the later versions of v13.
I admit I really hate to see the steering wheel jerking come back. However, I think when Tesla releases v14.3.7, it won’t be present. When there are occurrences of it in FSD versions, it is usually resolved by the following release.
FSD Disregards Manual Turn Signals
This is my biggest bone to pick with FSD other than Navigation issues, but this one seems like it would be such an easy fix.
If Tesla is going to put the word “Supervised” on the end of “Full Self-Driving,” then when I tell the car to do something, it should do it. If I input an increase in speed by pressing the accelerator, the car will immediately respond. It does not disregard my input because it feels it is traveling at the right speed.
FSD should never disobey and turn off turn signals that the driver inputs. Trying to direct the car into the correct lane, I had initiated the left turn signal not once, not twice, but three times, with the car turning it off all three times and continuing in a lane that would end in just one block. The only solution at this point would be to zipper merge.
This goes back to the fact that self-driving’s biggest bottleneck might be rider preference. A zipper merge might have been more than reasonable, might have saved me time that I spent sitting through an additional light cycle, and might be something many drivers would do. I was in no hurry, I traditionally do not try to zipper merge because it feels inconsiderate, and lastly, the car should have just followed my input.
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This caused me to disengage and drive manually the rest of the way home. Sometimes I just do not need FSD to try to pass every car it can at intersections.
Bird Braking is a Thing of the Past
The big complaint with recent versions of Full Self-Driving has been what we’ve coined as “bird braking,” which is when the car will brake suddenly as a bird flies past.
There have been zero issues with this so far in v14.3.6, which is an excellent improvement.
FSD Might Already Be Taking Note of Driver Preferences
Another thing I have noticed over the past few days is that v14.3.6 seems to already be taking my preferences with navigation into account.
This is something that is supposed to be rolling out with the Summer Update, but I have a hunch it’s already present and might have been included in this v14.3.6 build. On Friday, FSD pulled into an entrance to a local convenience store that it had never attempted to go into before.
Typically, I manually pull into this entrance because it avoids heavy cross traffic at the main entrance. FSD has always chosen that congested main entrance.
I don’t want to get anyone excited but my Tesla running FSD v14.3.6 just:
✅ Pulled into an entrance at my local Sheetz that I routinely pull into manually but FSD never has entered
-✅ Pulled into my assigned parking space at home despite many other spots being vacant https://t.co/ZUShvknTWO pic.twitter.com/83O5a2S0eh
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
Additionally, FSD has pulled into my assigned parking spot at my townhouse community on multiple occasions with this release. This is something that used to happen ocassionally, but not consistently.
It also navigated back to the same convenience store last night, drove through crazy cars scrambling to gas pumps, navigated out of the parking lot correctly, drove me home, and, once again, parked in my assigned spot.
As previously stated, this release just seems to have a few things that need to be brought to Tesla’s attention, and also to make others who use FSD aware of some things that I’ve experienced. I look forward to the next release that will remedy these issues, just as Tesla has always done in the past.
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Elon Musk’s massive Terafab project, which will be the first true conglomeration between each of his major entities, is set to get its final location soon, the CEO said on Tesla’s recent earnings call.
“The Terafab, we expect to announce a location soon, and provide more details about our plans in that regard. We’ll leave that to the product, the launch announcement rather than try to squeeze it into an earnings call,” Musk said last Wednesday.
Tesla Terafab set for launch: Inside the $20B AI chip factory that will reshape the auto industry
Terafab was announced by Musk back in March and was essentially a massive, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing project that would provide all the chips the three companies needed for their AI initiatives without needing third-party companies.
The plant will produce over 1 terawatt of AI compute each year, and will help back up projects like Optimus, Full Self-Driving, and other AI-based projects that Musk’s companies are working on.
In April, less than a month after the project was launched, Intel announced it would join the project, contributing manufacturing expertise and consulting to Terafab as a whole. Intel is one of three chip manufacturers that produce sub-5 nanometer chips at scale. TSMC and Samsung are the other two.
However, there was no true indication of where Terafab would end up, but most believe it will likely be somewhere in Texas. Business Insider has reported that SpaceX plans to build out Terafab in Grimes County, Texas, but this is unconfirmed.
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Musk confirmed recently that it would not be on Giga Texas property, as it is simply too large.
The sheer scale of TERAFAB is going to be insane.
Elon said it wouldn’t be suitable for anywhere on Giga Texas property because it’s too big:
“We couldn’t possibly fit the Terafab on the GigaTexas campus. It will be far bigger than everything else combined there.
Several… pic.twitter.com/79GbhNNuf4
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 23, 2026
Terafab holds much of Musk’s grand ambitions for the future within its construct. It holds so much responsibility for the future and the biggest projects that Musk’s companies can imagine.
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“I think this is a very big announcement and it deserves to have its own day in the spotlight and not be squeezed into an earnings call,” he said. “I do think Terafab is going to be an amazing initiative and a necessary one, and one without which we will be constrained in our ability to scale Optimus production, because we simply won’t have enough AI chips.”
He continued by stating that Terafab is necessary for scaling Optimus, which Musk said could be the biggest product of any kind of all time. “It’s crucial to solve that, and we’ll have to solve memory, logic, and packaging in order to scale Optimus.”
SpaceX performed a secret test on a specific portion of Starship with its recent 13th test flight last week, CEO Elon Musk revealed.
Starship’s 13th test flight took place last Friday, and in many aspects, it was one of the most overwhelmingly successful launches in the project’s history.
All of the mission objectives were met without incident, both the Super Heavy Booster and Ship managed to perform safe splashdowns in the Gulf of America and the Indian Ocean, respectively, and the deployment of Starlink satellites came and went without any complications.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
However, there was more on the agenda for SpaceX with Flight 13. Musk revealed an internal test of the ship’s heat shield tiles, as the space exploration company wanted to push them to the limits after previous issues.
Many noticed that Starship’s initial launch seemed to be more accelerated than normal, and that was not a mistake. Musk revealed that SpaceX decided to give Flight 13 an intentionally aggressive acceleration rate in an effort to test how well the tiles would remain attached to the ship:
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This flight intentionally had much higher acceleration to test how well the heat shield tiles would remain attached at high dynamic pressure.
Test was successful.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
SpaceX had issues with some of the heat shield tiles remaining attached early on in the Starship program. The first six test flights presented some kind of anomaly with them, so the company’s big focus with them was to figure out a way to keep them intact through the duration of the flight.
Things truly improved as Flight 10 showed that ceramic tiles generally stayed attached to the ship far better due to refined attachment, as SpaceX utilized pins instead of adhesives. Flights 10 through 13 truly showed some clear progress with the heat shield tiles, and this latest test seems to be where some real progress was noticed, especially by Musk.
The 13th Starship launch last Friday was the second with Starship V3, SpaceX’s latest and greatest iteration of the spacecraft. Goals and ambitions are getting even grander as the project continues to progress. Musk has already hinted that SpaceX will likely try to catch Starship with Flight 14.
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Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.6 review: a rare regression, but some bright spots
Musk’s massive Terafab project will get final location soon
