Tesla warned of three big issues amid falling sales - despite share price climbing 25% in a month

Speaking on BBC Radio’s Today programme, Andy Palmer, former chief executive at Aston Martin, spoke on the issues facing Tesla - which suffered a fourth straight drop in monthly sales.

“They’ve fallen by about half and there are three things going on,” Mr Palmer said.

“One is the Tesla portfolio is getting relatively old - they do facelifts but haven’t replaced their models and that plays into competitors, particularly the Chinese - big competition from the likes of BYD.

“And thirdly there’s controversy around the CEO himself Elon Musk, certain amount of people protesting and not buying because of him - a bit of brand damage there.”

Mr Palmer also suggested the dip in fortunes for Tesla may result in an opportunity for UK-based manufacturers, which would be a new issue to contend with for the US-based manufacturer.

“Car companies crave certainty and now we’ve got a clear trade agreement with the US, the EU and with Japan - there’s stability in the UK market,” he said.

“While we didn’t get away with no tariff, there is relatively low tariffs to each of those places and that’s good news for the UK.”

As part of his attempts to refocus on his corporate responsibilities following his work alongside the US government in DOGE, Mr Musk has not only promised Tesla shareholders he’ll be focusing far more of his time on his companies, he has now said he’ll be back to “spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms”.

Investors reacted positively when he initially promised to lower his DOGE related work, but Mr Musk has far more than just the car company on his plate.

His net worth of $390bn (£289bn) is down more than $40bn this year, yet still comfortably places him as the richest person on the planet, according to Bloomberg.

Among others, he also owns social media platform X, The Boring Company and SpaceX - which on Wednesday saw a third Starship test launch end in an out-of-control manner, when a rocket exploded.

Dr David Whitehouse, former Science editor at the BBC, told Today: “Problems are piling up for Musk’s SpaceX, this is the third time things have gone wrong for super heavy booster starship. This is the third mission things have gone wrong.”

SpaceX was valued at $350bn (£260bn) in December of last year, though as a private company that total is subject to change at indeterminate intervals, such as when investment is sought or the company buys shares from employees. Musk owned 42 per cent of the business at the end of last year, while investment firms Baillie Gifford and Sequoia Capital are among those to also hold stakes.

But Tesla is a public listed company, which perhaps puts the greatest pressure on Musk to improve its fortunes.

Despite a steep drop from $480 in December to below $225 in March and April, Tesla has rebounded to an extent since president Donald Trump announced his tariffs pause.

A rise of 25 per cent over the past month sees the share price back to February levels but still down 11 per cent year to date - yet so much of Tesla’s promise is on future events and sales, and not necessarily in EVs.

Until those robotics, data and self-driving cars materialise as viable commercial drivers of growth, though, Tesla will need to refocus on earning back brand trust and car sales, particularly in Europe, to get matters fully back on track before competitors dominate the space it once led.