Tesla Model Y Bags 5-Star Rating Amidst Plunging Market Cap

When Tesla’s market capitalization hit $1 trillion in late October 2021, Elon Musk became the first person to be worth over $300 billion. However, After Tuesday, December 13, 2022 valuation, the EV maker’s equity dipped below $500 billion for the first time since November 2020. It later rebounded and hovered slightly above the mark.

Tesla shares were down that day 4%, chopping $4.6 billion off Elon Musk’s net worth. At the time, the Tesla CEO was worth about $176.7 billion, slightly below Bernard Arnault ($189 billion) of LVMH who has held the position of the world’s richest man since last week.

Arnault overtook Musk as the world’s richest man for the first time on Wednesday 7 December 2022. However, the topple was short-lived as both traded spots in the days that followed. However, it appears the Frenchman is running away with the top spot.

While Tesla has been struggling to maintain a major share in the EV market, the company’s fortune took a nosedive after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Many investors believe he is distracted by the social media platform—and that has to change soon in the best interest of Tesla investors.

Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA said, “There is a rising acknowledgment that the earlier Musk takes up a chairman role at Twitter and hands off the day-to-day operations to someone else, the better off TSLA investors will be.”

Tesla’s stock slid by over 50% in 2022. Interestingly, all the decline happened after Musk announced that he was going to purchase Twitter for $44 billion in mid-April. In addition to Musk’s Twitter distraction, the company has continued to face supply chain issues, especially in China.

Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush captured it differently, “Musk has moved from being a superhero to a villain for Tesla in the eyes of the Street. The Twitter circus has hurt the Musk brand. Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk.”

How Tesla shares stack up against other major EV makers

Tesla’s share value has fallen 28% since October 27 when Musk acquired Twitter and became the CEO of the social media giant. Within the same period, other major EV makers and Tesla rivals like Volkswagen, GM, and Ford have experienced slightly higher share value.

Following the dump of Tesla stock price, Leo Koguan, the founder of SHI International who happens to be the largest retail shareholder in the company, has called on the company’s board to “perform shock therapy to resuscitate stock price,” through a means of share buyback. Musk sold billions of dollars worth of his Tesla shares to finance his Twitter takeover.

Interestingly, not everybody sees the plunging Tesla stock as a problem. Tesla fans see it as a buying opportunity which says a lot about the confidence many have in the company’s ability to bounce back. Regardless of Musk’s new distraction, the company has been taking steps to reverse the trend.

One such move was bumping up EV production at the company’s Austin, Texas, assembly plant and another located on the outskirts of Berlin. Tesla has also brought Tom Zhu, Shanghai Manufacturing head to the United States to assist the Austin operation to reach its full potential.

Tesla Model Y receives 5-star in European safety test

It is not all doom and gloom for Tesla investors and fans. In a week of negatives, the conferring of a 5-star rating on Model Y’s autopilot system in a European safety test should put smiles on the faces of fans and investors. According to the test, the braking system of the 2022 Model Y performed exceptionally well in response to pedestrians.

In the safety assist category that tests the safety of automobiles, Model Y scored 98%. Other reasons for the high score include giving users great handling, explosive acceleration feeling, long driving range, and quick recharge time.

The test included instances where a child is running behind parked vehicles and where a car is turning into a road and meets a pedestrian crossing the road. The 2022 Model Y earned 7.7 out of 9 points in emergency braking close to pedestrians.

What the high scores mean is that Model Y’s tech performs well in crash avoidance and crash protection. The EV received the top score in two of the four test categories and received the second highest score in a third category which has to do with the interaction of the car with vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists.

Tesla launches Steam integration for latest versions of Model X and S

Musk first revealed in February that Tesla was working to bring Steam to its EVs. That has finally become a reality. The company is rolling out Steam integration for the latest versions of Model X and Model S as part of its holiday update. The reveal video showed Tesla’s infotainment system running Steam Beta. While it is not clearly spelled out yet, “new” Model X and S EVs will likely mean the “Plaid” edition that started fulfilling deliveries in 2021. These versions use AMD’s RDNA 2 GPUs (the same technology that powers PlayStation 5) and AMD’s Ryzen chips.

Over the past few years, Tesla has been building its in-vehicle games library. Consequently, the auto giant has added games like Fallout Shelter, PUGB, and Cuphead to its catalog. However, with Steam integration, the game options will grow to thousands.

Tesla had to disable the ability to play games while driving after it got into trouble with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Therefore, it is unlikely that users can play Steam games while in motion.

Besides Steam integration, the holiday update comes with access to Apple Music integration for the infotainment systems. Users can now simultaneously schedule Light Shows on multiple vehicles and view their cabin camera from the Tesla app while in Sentry or Dog Mode.