Tesla shares plunge as James Murdoch joins director sales and Canada probes rebate “gaming”

Shares in Tesla have plunged again, this time by more than 15 per cent as news emerged that James Murdoch had joined other directors in cashing in on its recent price surge, and as the company was accused of “gaming” EV rebates in Canada.

The price of Tesla stock fell $US40.52 overnight, or 15.4 per cent, to close at $US220.15 a share, shaving around $US120 billion off its market value and taking it to the lowest since late October.

Tesla stock surged after Donald Trump’s election win on November 5, but after peaking at a high of $US488.54 in late December, the stock has been in free-fall, losing over half its value.

Analysts are mixed about the cause – variously blaming its over-hyped value, too high expectations on the success of full-self-driving, and the slump in Tesla sales around the world, blamed on the wait for the new Model Y, inventory levels and the quite visible consumer push-back against Elon Musk because of his actions as “first buddy” to Trump.

The market has been further unsettled by the decision of the company’s board – already under pressure from some quarters to either get Musk back to work as CEO of Tesla, or replace him – to cash in on the recent stock surge.

The Australian chair, Robyn Denholm, is reported to have sold $US117 million in stock over the past few months, including $US33 million revealed last week, while Musk’s brother Kimbal is also reported to have sold stock.

CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold $US1.7 million in Tesla shares earlier this week, after selling $US2.8 million in stock last month.

In the latest disclosure, Electrek reported that director James Murdoch – a friend of Musk – is revealed to have sold $US13 million in Tesla stock.

It comes as Tesla is accused of gaming EV rebates in Canada. According to widespread media reports, the Canadian Minister of Transport is investigating Tesla after a “mountain” of suspicious rebate requests were filed in the final three days of Canada’s EV government incentive program.

“As the program wound to a close last month, Tesla filed an incredible 8,600 sales in three days,” Jalopnik reports.

“In spite of severe backlash within Canada against Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his participation in the hostile U.S. Trump Administration, the electric car retailer claims that it sold more cars in Canada in the final three days of the $5,000 incentive program than it had in the entirety of the first quarter of 2024.”

One dealer is reported to have claimed 4,000 EV sales in a single weekend. According to the Canadian Auto Dealers Association, this is an impossibility and it left other EV dealers with some 2,300 unreimbursed rebates, and are out of pocket by $C10 million.

“Tesla gamed the system,” CADA spokesperson Huw Williams complained, “These dealers in good faith gave customers the money for a program that is always refunded. They shouldn’t be left making a payment on behalf of the Government of Canada. Tesla gamed the system.”

Musk has been the centre of controversy for his support of Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods, and his threats to make Canada the 51st state of the US. Musk has described Canada as “not a real country.”

That has prompted more than 300,000 people to sign a petition calling for Musk’s Canadian citizenship to be revoked, for Ontario premier Doug Ford to threaten to tear up $C100 million in Starling contracts, for the city of Toronto to exclude Tesla from a city EV incentive program, and for multiple protests at Tesla dealerships around the country and in the US.

See also: Trump and right wing pundits buy “unusable” Teslas in pivot to shore up Musk’s EV company