A longtime Tesla investor said he has sold about $60 million in the company’s shares saying no one wants its car or robots.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, shareholder Ross Gerber said Tesla isn’t trustworthy anymore as more people are realizing its cars are not selling and Elon Musk’s ideas of robots and full-self-driving cars are never going to come to reality.
“Over time, I’ve just been sort of lowering my position, because I just don’t have the same confidence that they’re going to achieve the goals that were set out for Tesla several years ago and even recently, which is really to sell more cars,” Gerber said. He added that robotics and self-driving tech are “just a distraction from the fact that they need to sell cars, this year, and next year, and the year after, because none of this is coming anytime soon.”
According to Business Insider, Tesla investors have become more skeptical over the company’s trajectory. Its stock is down 13% this year, thanks to declining sales, rising competition, and Musk’s controversial figure.
“It’s really a quagmire where you have the best products in an industry but a CEO who doesn’t actually work there, who doesn’t try to sell the cars,” Gerber said, adding: “We’ve seen sales go down, and that’s what’s happening. Sales are going down. If you’re expecting a great quarter, you’re wrong. They’re not selling any Teslas here, other than basically, discount, discount, discount.”
Because of its troubles, Tesla has tried to rebrand itself as a robotics and AI company. However, Gerber said this would not likely save Tesla.
“The simplest way to do it is, go around to your neighbors and ask them, ‘How many of you would buy a humanoid robot built by Elon Musk?’ And the answer is zero, OK. Nobody wants a robot from Elon Musk. Why? Who would trust it?” Gerber said. “The last thing I need is some robot built by Elon Musk in my house, so I don’t know if they thought about the marketing of this at all yet.”
Despite his concerns, Gerber still holds $50 million in Tesla shares.
