Electric-vehicle shares finished the week ending on May 31 on a mixed note, with market leader Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) recording modest losses. The lackluster market mood amid the release of some weak economic readings contributed to some of the weakness.
Here are the key events that happened in the EV space during the week:
Tesla Gears Up For Shareholder Meeting: The question of “will” or “won’t” continued to dominate media discussions and social media chatter as Tesla fans worried about the proposal to approve Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation plan potentially failing. The widespread fear is that Musk could lose interest in running Tesla if the pay plan is shot down.
While analysts and legal experts discuss about propriety of the proposal, two proxy advisory firms, namely Glass Lewis and ISS, recommended that shareholders vote down the proposal. Taking aim at Glass Lewis, Tesla said in a letter that the firm omitted “key considerations, uses faulty logic, and relies on speculation and hypotheticals,” while making its recommendation.
The EV maker also impressed upon shareholders the need to ratify the plan. In a letter to shareholders released this week, it said, “Tesla believes it should abide by its commitment to Elon as Elon delivered on this commitment to Tesla. A deal is a deal. That is the fair and ethical thing to do.”
Separately, Tesla announced a recall of over 125,000 of its EVs in the U.S. due to issues with the deployment of seat belt warnings. The company said it will deploy a ...