At the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, Musk spoke about demand for cars and making more profit than competitors in light of a slow economy, and he also said that it would conduct a third-party audit of cobalt mines that provide Tesla with a key component to make batteries.
In a sign of troubled times even for electric car market leader Tesla, Musk said the company would try to advertise its cars, which it had not done before.
“Tesla is not immune to the global economic environment. I expect things at the macro level to be challenging at least for the next 12 months,” he added.
“Twitter’s Open Heart”
Musk has come under pressure to address investor concerns over the lack of a clear successor, falling demand for the company’s cars and delayed launches of some of its new models, as well as spending a lot of time at social media giant Twitter, which it bought in October.
“I was busy because I had to do a major open-heart operation on Twitter to keep the company alive,” Musk said. He announced last week that Linda Iaccarino, former chief advertising officer of NBC Universal, would succeed him as CEO of Twitter and that he would focus on the company’s products and technology.
Musk said at a shareholder meeting last year that he would stay with Tesla as long as it was beneficial.
In April, Musk said Tesla would prioritize sales growth over profits after missing its profit margin target due to aggressive price cuts.
Shares closed flat Tuesday at $166.52, up 0.6% in after-hours trading.
The stock has fallen around 60% from its November 2021 high, hurt by Musk’s concern for Twitter and fears of a drop in demand for electric cars.
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