Analyst reworks Tesla stock-price target as Q2 earnings report looms | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Well, he’s back to sleeping in the office.

In the book “The Founders” author Jimmy Soni wrote that in 1995, when Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal founded the online business directory Zip2, the future Tesla (TSLA) chief executive would sleep at the “spartan Palo Alto office space” and shower at the nearby YMCA.

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Sleeping at the office is something of a badge of honor with the world’s richest man.

He’d spent the night at the electric-vehicle company. And soon after taking over the social-media platform Twitter, which he renamed X, Musk said he would be sleeping at the office “until the org is fixed.”

In 2018 Musk described the necessity of working at least 80 hours a week — “peaking above 100 at times … in order to change the world.”

When Musk joined the Trump White House this year as a special government employee to run the Department of Government Efficiency, his subordinates were racking up 120 hours per week.

“It’s like the opposing team just leaves the field for two days,” Musk said, according to The New York Times. “Working the weekend is a superpower.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised to devote more time to Tesla. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Tesla contends with falling sales

Musk’s time at DOGE ended in spectacular fashion, with the SpaceX owner slamming Trump’s budget bill as “a disgusting abomination,” bloated with unnecessary spending.

He claimed on X that the Department of Justice hadn’t released its files into its investigation of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein because Trump appears in them. That post was later removed

Donald Trump responded by calling Musk a “train wreck” and suggested that the Tesla chief had gone “off the rails.”

More Tesla:

Musk, whose backing of Trump’s government-downsizing policies sparked attacks on Tesla dealerships and privately owned vehicles, recently said he planned to start a third political party.

Tesla sold 721,000 vehicles in the first half of 2025, down 13% from the year-earlier period, short of analysts’ expectations for roughly 970,000.

Increased competition from China, production delays, high interest rates and, yes, Musk’s political involvement are all seen as contributing to the falling sales.

In 2024, Tesla delivered about 1.79 million vehicles, down 1.1% from 2023 and marking its first-ever full-year-sales drop.

Meantime, the company’s shares have been taking a beating, sliding 18.3% this year, and the embattled Musk promised to spend more time at Tesla.

“Back to working 7 days a week and sleeping in the office if my little kids are away,” he posted on X.

“No one should put this many hours into work,” he says in an accompanying video. “This is not good. … [It] hurts my brain, my heart.”

Tesla last offered an update to its Full-Self-Driving software in May. Musk said on X that the autonomous-driving system would “see a step-change improvement as we integrate upgrades for the Austin robotaxi build into the general production release.” The robotaxi service launched June 22, in Austin.

Analyst sees Tesla second-half results challenged

Tesla might, however, lose its license to sell cars in California, amid a false-advertising lawsuit brought by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency is looking to suspend Tesla’s right to sell cars in the biggest U.S. EV market for 30 days, Electrek reported.

The DMV and Tesla for years have disputed the automaker’s ads for its Autopilot and more advanced FSD driver-assistance systems. The agency says Tesla misrepresents the abilities of its driver-assistance systems through the names themselves and the company’s marketing of them.

Tesla is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 23 after the market closes.

Bank of America Securities raised its price target on the EV maker to $341 from $305 and affirmed a neutral rating on the shares, according to The Fly

Tesla Q2 results are likely to be challenged due to the Trump administration’s tariffs and disappointing deliveries, the firm said.

Although Tesla produces all its vehicles in the US and its vehicles contain a large proportion of content made in North America, the exposure to tariffs is not insignificant, the investment firm says.

Tesla relies on batteries made in China, particularly for its battery business. The second half of 2025 is likely mixed because Q3 might benefit from demand pulled forward in the U.S., while Q4 might be challenged as the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act EV incentives, passed in 2022, are phased out, B of A said.

“On a more positive note, Tesla did start its robotaxi service in Austin,” the firm said. “This gives us more confidence on the promise to deliver unsupervised FSD by the end of 2025.”