Musk has endured other difficult periods with Tesla, such as when the company struggled to ramp up production on the Model 3 vehicle in 2018 while Musk sparred with US securities regulators over a brief flirtation with taking the company private.
Wall Street has grown accustomed to Musk's mercurial style and loose deadlines on targets for autonomous driving and other breakthroughs, cheering as Tesla turned in a string of strong results based on ever-rising revenues.
But with the financial picture less rosy, analysts are becoming more loudly skeptical.
Recent notes from JPMorgan Chase analysts dismissed Tesla's explanations for its disappointing deliveries, which had blamed factors such as shipping diversions amid conflict in the Red Sea and a suspected arson attack at its German factory.
JPMorgan "assigned little credence" to these explanations, even though markets largely appeared to accept them, the investment bank said in a note.
"The sweeping layoffs announced yesterday, amounting to a reduction in crewed production capacity, should now leave no doubt that the decline in deliveries has been a function of lower demand and not supply."
Deutsche Bank analysts last week downgraded Tesla to a "hold," pointing to disappointments about the rumored Model 2 delay that weren't offset by the Robotaxi push.
"The delay of Model 2 efforts creates the risk of no new vehicle in Tesla's consumer lineup for the foreseeable future, which would put continued downward pressure on its volume and pricing for many more years," said the Deutsche Bank note.
Musk's announcement that the Robotaxi will be unveiled in August "in no way means the technology is ready," said Deutsche Bank, which pointed to "technological, regulatory and operational challenges" that could hamper its commercial prospects.
"We worry there is considerable execution risk to the development of Robotaxi technology and that a fleet deployment could be years away," Deutsche Bank said.
Source: AFP
