Wedbush says Tesla needs to ‘navigate brand crisis or else’

After Tesla (TSLA) announced its Q1 delivery figure of 337,000 vehicles, which was “well below” both the Street’s 352,000 estimate and Street “whisper numbers” of about 350,000, Wedbush said “brand crisis issues are clearly having a negative impact on Tesla…there is no debate.” This delivery number was “a disaster for the bulls with continuous negativity around the TSLA brand,” according to the analyst, who adds: “We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses…they were a disaster on every metric.” While the firm says it remains “firmly bullish on the long-term Tesla story” and maintains an Outperform rating on the shares, it adds that Elon Musk “needs to stop this political firestorm and balance being CEO of Tesla with DOGE” and that the CEO “needs to get his act together or else unfortunately darker times are ahead for Tesla.”