Tesla electric vehicles are parked in a parking lot at the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg plant.
Patrick Pleul | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Tesla on Friday reversed losses from earlier in the day to turn higher, as the electric vehicle maker’s shares looked to wrap up a volatile week of trading.
Shares were up 0.7% as of 11:10 a.m. ET, erasing losses from earlier in the day — at one point, Tesla earlier shed as much as 6% in U.S. premarket trading.
On Wednesday, Tesla shares slumped 8% to post their worst day since before Donald Trump’s presidential election victory in November. For the week, Tesla shares are still down slightly.
Trump’s win prompted a sharp rally in Tesla shares, as investors increased their bets that the electric vehicle firm would benefit thanks to its CEO Elon Musk’s close ties to the president-elect.
The stock is still up around 72% since Nov. 5’s market close — the night of the U.S. presidential vote.
Musk was appointed by Trump to co-lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, also referred to as “DOGE.” The proposed presidential advisory commission’s acronym shares the same name as the internet meme that inspired so-called “memecoin” cryptocurrency, dogecoin.
Dogecoin briefly shot up in price after the body’s creation.
Musk was a major backer of Trump during the Republican’s election run, pouring in $277 million primarily into his campaign effort, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Musk is the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $439.4 billion, according to Forbes data.
Last month, Bloomberg News reported Trump’s transition team was planning to pursue a federal framework for regulating self-driving vehicles.
Tesla and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on the report.
If true, the move would offer a major boost to Musk’s EV firm. Tesla is staking its future on the idea of rolling out mass fleets of autonomous vehicles, known as “robotaxi” services. At the firm’s “We Robot” event in October, Musk unveiled the firm’s Cybercab self-driving concept car.
Tesla has yet to deliver on Musk’s promise of offering truly autonomous vehicles. Tesla’s Autopilot and paid “Full Self-Driving” services still require a human behind the wheel to supervise the system’s actions and take over if needed.
In other Tesla-related news, data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association on Thursday showed sales of Tesla cars declined 40.9% in November, exceeding the overall 9.5% dip in sales of battery electric cars (BEVs) in the bloc.
Separately, Tesla also on Friday said it was recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles in the U.S. due to an issue with its tire pressure monitoring system. Software-related recalls aren’t typically a huge issue for Tesla, however, as it can issue “over-the-air” updates to fix these issues.
