Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) inventory has carried out fairly awfully just lately. Since they peaked at $479.86 in mid-December, the electrical automobile (EV) automaker’ shares have tumbled by 44% to $267.28 at the moment.

If an investor had put in £5,000 at that time, they might solely have £2,785 at the moment. Disappointing!

Would investing that £5,000 at the moment be an excellent alternative or will the shares proceed crumbling?

Bubble bursting?

Tesla inventory has lengthy been a winner within the inventory market. It’s rocketed by 20,781% because it went public in 2010. However there’s all the time been issues with its valuation. The agency’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 131 is actually costly.

I don’t suppose valuation alone is the rationale its shares are falling, because the agency has all the time had excessive valuation multiples.

The valuation was all the time justified by robust development, which is now beginning to dissipate. The truth is, gross sales are declining. Wanting on the agency’s newest press release from Tuesday (2 April), it solely delivered 336,681 automobiles within the first quarter of 2025, a 13% decline from the 386,610 automobile deliveries within the year-ago quarter.

So, what’s inflicting Tesla’s development to stagnate?

First, competitors has been hurting the corporate. For instance, EV gross sales for the Chinese language competitor BYD rocketed up by 39% to 416,388 in its first quarter of 2025, a stark distinction to Tesla’s decline.

Second, Elon Musk’s involvement in politics could have broken the automaker’s picture. That is evident with Tesla vehicles and dealerships being topic to protests. Moreover, Musk’s criticism of European politics has been ill-received on the continent. The agency’s hottest mannequin, Mannequin Y, noticed a fall in gross sales in March yr on yr. In France, it’s declined by 37%, after which much more in another nations.

Trump’s tariffs

So, can Tesla overcome these points and resume development? Effectively, actually, the corporate has loads of catalysts for future development. Its involvement in autonomous automobiles is an instance of this. This market is anticipated to develop at a compounded annual fee of 37% by means of to 2034. This is a chance Tesla may seize.

Nonetheless, Trump’s tariffs may spell extra hassle for the agency.

Whereas it’s thought-about to be well-positioned for the tariffs, it nonetheless sources a few of its elements for manufacturing exterior the US. Due to this fact, the corporate may nonetheless be hit by additional prices. If it passes these on to customers, it may undergo from lowered demand. If the agency absorbs them, it is going to eat into margins and profitability. This isn’t useful for the automaker, as its gross margin has already been falling since 2022. Again then it was 25.6%, now it’s 17.9%.

Furthermore, the corporate may very well be additional hit on its gross sales overseas, as there are potential reciprocal tariffs. For instance, the EU is contemplating using this measure, including to Tesla’s struggles to promote within the bloc.

For me, Tesla inventory is already fairly costly. Even when it have been to say no by half, its P/E would nonetheless be 60. That is too excessive, particularly with the problems the corporate is encountering. The worldwide commerce struggle is simply going so as to add to this. Due to this fact, I may see a £5,000 funding falling by half to £2,500 (and probably decrease) over the following 12 months.