Tesla Shares Plunge 15% Amid Market Sell-Off, Steepest Drop Since 2020

Stocks of Elon Musk’s Tesla plummeted by more than 15 per cent on Monday, its largest single-day decline in several years amid a broad-based market sell-off sparked by potential recession concerns and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariff plans. Shares registered their worst day since September 2020, closing more than 50 per cent below their record closing high of $479 on December 17 last year.

The bloodbath in Wall Street came amid concerns over declining electric vehicle sales and politically driven protests against Mr Musk over his involvement in the Trump administration. The Tesla chief, however, seemed to dismiss the market concerns. Replying to a post on X about the largest single-day drops in Tesla shares, Mr Musk wrote, “It will be fine long-term.”

A Look At Tesla Shares

Tesla shares plunged 15.4 per cent by the end of Monday’s trading session. It was the largest single-day percentage decline since September 2020, when shares saw a decline of over 21 per cent in a single day. 

With this, Tesla stocks witnessed a total decline of 41.4 per cent year-to-date so far in 2025. This includes a drop of over 36.6 per cent in the past months. As of March 10, Tesla stock has fallen by more than half to a new market cap of $696 billion after reaching its all-time largest market capitalization of $1.5 trillion on December 17. 

UBS has also lowered its price target on the stock to $225 from $259, citing lower delivery forecasts for the first quarter it sees resulting from softer demand for Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. This contributed to the sell-off, along with broader concerns about the US economy facing a recession and a widening trade war amid President Trump’s tariff threats. 

On Monday, the S&P 500 ended the trading day 2.7 per cent lower–its lowest closing level since September and its biggest daily percentage decline since December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, dropped 2 per cent, for its lowest close since November 4, the day before Mr Trump’s election as President. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 4 per cent to a near six-month low.

Protests Against Tesla

Tesla, where Mr Musk is chief executive, has been facing protests and even vandalism at some of its dealerships. Last week, shots were fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon, while in Boston, someone set fire to the company’s charging stations. Authorities also arrested some violent protesters for rallying at a Tesla dealership in Lower Manhattan.

Moreover, a recent report found that Tesla car sales in Germany, Europe’s largest market for electric vehicles, fell by 76 percent in February compared with a year earlier, sounding alarm bells for the entire European market. 

Questions Over Musk’s Leadership

The fall in Tesla stock came as its chief Musk is facing questions about how much attention he is paying to his businesses while serving as an adviser to President Trump. Over the week, Mr Musk’s business empire – including Tesla, social media site X and the rocket maker SpaceX – has run into challenges.

On Monday, as Tesla shares fell, users of X reported widespread outages. Before that, last week, a SpaceX rocket exploded in Florida during launch, showering some places with debris.

Mr Musk was quick to blame the X issues on a cyberattack stemming from Ukraine, without providing evidence. He posted on X that Democratic donors were responsible for seeding protests against Tesla, again without evidence. In response to the SpaceX explosion, he said on X: “Rockets are hard.”