More than $500 billion gone up in smoke: Tesla's incredible fall in just a few weeks

The bad patch continues for electric vehicle pioneer Tesla ... The American group led by Elon Musk has plummeted further on the stock market after the announcement on Tuesday of plummeting sales in Europe. The manufacturer has thus lost more than $89 billion in valuation in a few hours. Anything but the thickness of the line. Worse still, Tesla has seen its capitalization melt by more than a third in the space of three months, going from $1,540 billion on December 17, 2024 to around $950 billion on February 26. Enough to show a loss of more than $500 billion, if not almost $600. A plunge almost as rapid as the surge in Tesla shares from November 6, the date of the American election.

At the time, investors saw Donald Trump's victory - and the proximity of the two men - as an extremely positive signal for all of Elon Musk's companies, including Tesla, and their future. The appointment of the SpaceX boss to head the government efficiency department - the famous DOGE that has the heavy task of dismantling the American bureaucracy - had also been well received by the markets. But hopes have since been dashed by the difficulties Tesla is facing.

Far from the glitter, the manufacturer must face the fall in its sales, in Europe as in China, not to mention the problems linked to the image of Elon Musk. Despite a jump in registrations of electric vehicles in Europe (+34% over one year), Tesla's sales fell at the start of the year by 45.2%, according to data published Tuesday by the Association of European Manufacturers (ACEA). And this, even though the company anticipated, on the contrary, "a slight increase" in its deliveries in 2024.

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For comparison, Tesla's stock market plunge of more than $500 billion far exceeds the market capitalization... of its competitors in the global auto market. Toyota's capitalization is around $288 billion, while that of the German Volkswagen hovers around $56 billion and that of General Motors is around $49 billion. Another order of magnitude, Tesla lost in a few days the equivalent of the market capitalization of large American groups such as the streaming service Netflix ($426 billion), the insurance company UnitedHealth ($428 billion), or the mass distribution company Costco ($466 billion). Despite this fall, however, Tesla's valuation remains higher than that of its main competitors combined, from Toyota to Ferrari, including Renault, Volkswagen, Stellantis and GM.

Unsurprisingly, Tesla's fall has dragged its boss's fortune down with it. At 53, Elon Musk began 2025 at the top of the world's wealth rankings, even distinguishing himself as the only billionaire listed by Forbes magazine to have managed to exceed $400 billion. With a fortune estimated at $421.2 billion, the co-founder of SpaceX has seen his wealth jump by $91 billion since December 1, according to the magazine's estimates. But the finances of the man who owns around 13% of Tesla in the form of shares and options have also plummeted in recent weeks, by more than 4%.