Shares in EV maker Tesla (TSLA) reversed today as rival Polestar offered current car owners thousands of dollars to drive their vehicles instead.
Disgruntled Tesla Drivers
The Swedish group, which is backed by Chinese giant Geely, is offering discounts of up to $20,000 towards a lease of its Polestar 3 vehicle for current Tesla owners in the U.S. It hopes the move will attract those Tesla drivers less than enamored with the actions of chief executive Elon Musk during his stint as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration.
The Tesla stock price has plummeted 35% over the last three months as protest over Musk-led job cuts intensifies. This has included high profile attacks on the vehicles themselves. The share price was down over 6% today in pre-market trading.
It’s not only the bromance between Musk and Trump which might be making Tesla owners think twice about staying behind the wheel of the EV titan. More competition in the space and worries that higher tariffs might hike vehicle prices and general concerns about a recession could also tempt Tesla types to stray elsewhere.
Trump Could Be Pleased
According to a report on Reuters a long range, dual motor Polestar 3 with all the upgrade packs would cost an eye-watering $93,000, but for Tesla owners using the discounts, the price would sink to $73,000. A Tesla Model S starts at just under $80,000 so as the Americans say ‘Do the Math.’
“We piloted a conquest campaign in late February. Based on the positive response we ran a new campaign for the month of March. We are currently running a similar campaign for April,” a spokesperson of Polestar told Reuters. Polestar has said that the response to its campaigns has been “incredible.”
The Polestar 3 model is produced in a Volvo Cars factory in South Carolina. Polestar wants to up its U.S. made production numbers and reduce its dependence on China. This should please Trump given that at least part of his tariffs tirade strategy has been to rekindle U.S. manufacturing. Sorry, Elon buddy.
Is TSLA a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, TSLA has a Hold consensus based on 16 Buy, 11 Hold and 11 Sell ratings. TSLA stock’s consensus price target is $307.75 implying an 21.56% upside.
.