Tesla loses its magic touch

Tesla is producing too few cars, running out of cash and facing legal trouble. Founder Elon Musk’s flippant attitude isn’t helping. Alice Gråhns reports.

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Elon Musk's smirk is beginning to grate
(Image credit: © 2014 David Rawcliffe/Propaganda. All Rights Reserved.)

"Elon Musk is seen as the face of Tesla," say Therese Poletti and Jeremy Owens on MarketWatch. But with the electric-car company embroiled in "yet another storm of bad news, the constant smirk he wears is growing even more worrisome". Tesla has had one of the worst weeks in its 15-year history. It has come under regulatory scrutiny for the second crash this year involving Tesla's driver-assistance system Autopilot, the latest of which resulted in a fatality. A Delaware court last week allowed a shareholder lawsuit over Tesla's $2.6bn 2016 acquisition of SolarCity to go ahead.

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Alice grew up in Stockholm and studied at the University of the Arts London, where she gained a first-class BA in Journalism. She has written for several publications in Stockholm and London, and joined MoneyWeek in 2017.