By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked the government to give people back their freedom amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company reported Q1 earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. TSLA stock is up.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a popular figure in the electric vehicle industry, bashed the government’s stay-at-home orders, which has been put in place to combat the further spread of the coronavirus pandemic. He said it during an earnings call held on Wednesday, where Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported better earnings that have beaten analysts’ expectations.
The company has now posted its third in a raw positive quarterly profit despite the harsh economic state caused by the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak. In a phone call, Musk raised concern over the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order that has significantly affected its operations in the Fremont, California factory. He said:
“We are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay Area. The extension of shelter-in-place or as I would call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes, against all constitutional right, and in my opinion infringing on people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong, and not why people came to America or pulled this country – what the fuck?”
As a result of the good earnings report, Tesla Inc. shares (NASDAQ: TSLA) jumped 4.08% to trade at $800.51 per share, by Wednesday evening. In the pre-market, the stock is over 8% up, at $866.54.TSLA stock has regained almost three-quarters of the value lost during the March free-fall. Driven by an increase in demand for its products, the shares might hit a new all-time high soon despite the coronavirus disruptions.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Coronavirus
Musk had previously gone to twitter to post a series of thoughts regarding the see matter. In the tweets, he called on the government to relax the social distancing restrictions. He went ahead to share articles and praise places that have relaxed their orders.
Due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the San Francisco Bay Area, the shelter-in-place order was extended from March 4, until at least the end of May. Tesla has been significantly affected as it relies on the factory to maintain its supply chain to customers’ orders.
Despite the company having deployed measures to see it through the crisis like cutting the employees’ salaries and reducing the rent paid every month in its stores, Musk continues disqualifying the coronavirus potentiality.
Recently, he has earned Twitter fun, whereby most of his comments cannot be taken seriously without paper and officially confirming it. Previously, he had said that children are essentially immune to coronavirus, which is not true. In addition, he said that there would be close to zero new cases in the U.S. by the end of April, another comment which has not been true.