Musk selling Tesla stock to fund twitter purchase has pushed down the stock of a company that was already under pressure.
And Tesla is already facing its own challenges. The number of recalls needed on Tesla cars is becoming a problem - they are now an established brand with owners that won't cut them the slack early adopters would. Self driving has been "around the corner" for so long that people are no longer thinking it will be a thing. And the technology advancements to self-driving was a pull for some buyers. Plus other companies are either at a similar level or even more advanced than Tesla on this. The big traditional manufacturers are now going full on into electric and creating some stunning cars. Just look at Hyundai - a decade ago was an unadventurous brand people bought for the warranty. Now they are bringing some truly stunning EVs to market. BMW, Mercedes, Audi are gunning for the prestige market. VW - after their diesel scandal are all in on electric. Chinese backed manufacturers are creating hugely impressive budget EVs along with cars like Chevy Bolt. EVs have a range similar to Tesla for similar priced cars which would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Mercedes are creating prototype vehicles with astonishing range - this will reflect into their next generation EVs. The multi-media Tesla interior was revolutionary 5 years ago - now it is in almost every EV and some are now doing it better.
The charging infrastructure Tesla has still is head and shoulders above the competition. But for how long?
I don't want Tesla to fail. This company took on an established market with a massive incentive to stifle innovation and won. It turned around the market. But it is at a crossroads where the right decisions will maintain it as a leading EV brand and the wrong ones will consign it to wikipedia page of defunct car manufacturers - and that is a very long list full of companies with great products. And at this time their CEO and "technoking" (Tesla's words not mine) is busy pouring petrol on the twitter dumpster fire whilst selling shares and getting investors starting to question his previously accepted genius. If Musk is as micro-managing as he seems from the outside, then Tesla could be looking at a difficult time.
Musk is at risk of turning perception of him from "eccentric genius" to "bit of a twat". And his core ability is not engineer genius but the ability to spot a good idea and convince other people it is also a good idea. This doesn't work without him maintaining his reputation.