Ever since the beginning of the year, Tesla (TSLA) stock has been in a race to the bottom that isn’t showing signs of stopping.
As shares surged late in 2024 on momentum from President Donald Trump’s victory, experts touted TSLA as one of the market’s most likely winners of the new era. Between CEO Elon Musk’s close proximity to Trump and the new president’s promises of less regulation, the company looked poised to continue growing in 2025.
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Three months into the new year, TSLA stock has mostly trended downward as Musk has focused more on his responsibilities on Capitol Hill than at any of his manufacturing facilities. This hasn’t inspired much confidence in investors, who have expressed concern for the company’s future.
One investor in particular, though, has made it clear he believes immediate action is necessary for TSLA stock to start making up the ground it has lost. It starts with Musk making a drastic change.
Tesla stock has been falling lately as negative consumer sentiment rises in response to Elon Musk’s actions.
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One financial expert has a plan to save Tesla but Musk won’t like it
As Tesla’s stock decline has accelerated over the past few months, more and more experts have sounded the alarm about Musk’s lack of leadership and the risks he poses to the company.
His work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has to be highly distracting, and his proximity to Trump hasn’t helped shield Tesla from the impact of recent auto tariffs.
Related: Prominent Tesla shareholder has harsh words for Elon Musk
Now, Trump has revealed that Musk will be leaving his administration in the near future, possibly because his allotted 130-day period as a special government employee is coming to an end. But one Tesla investor thinks that isn’t enough and says it’s time for Musk to step down as Tesla’s CEO.
Ross Gerber has been a Tesla investor for a long time, and he has made it clear that he believes the company is better off without Musk. Gerber serves as President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, which owns approximately 262,352 shares of TSLA stock as of February 2025.
While that doesn’t make him one of Tesla’s biggest shareholders, Gerber is highly focused on pressuring Tesla to make a leadership change. He recently accused Musk of being too focused on his work at DOGE, but now he argues that the CEO is compromising Tesla in other ways.
Leaving DOGE is a good start but it doesn’t change his tweeting garbage daily. The tesla brand is severely tainted at this point. Damage is done. $TSLA
— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) April 2, 2025
From Gerber’s perspective, the only way for Tesla to be saved is if it moves forward without Musk, as he stated in a recent interview.
“With Tesla, it’s simple. It’s you get another face of Tesla,” he stated. “It could be anybody, any CEO, somebody who’s in the middle, who is a great communicator, who refocuses people on what Tesla really does. I’ve been saying this for two years. Tesla needs to be Tesla.”
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Gerber also highlighted Musk’s brash behavior on social media as an important factor, stating that even if he leaves DOGE, it won’t change his habit of sharing inappropriate things, which he sees as tainting Tesla’s brand. “My anger rises that he says incredibly insulting things to people constantly,” he added.
Gerber believes Tesla stock could rebound if Musk is willing to step down
As someone who follows Tesla closely, Gerber believes the company still has significant potential and could be turned around with the right leadership. But he has made it absolutely clear he believes that means anyone but Musk taking the helm.
Although TSLA stock is currently down 37% year-to-date (YTD), Gerber predicts it can fall even further. Specifically, he believes it can correct 50% from its current price of less than $250 per share.
Related: Wall Street sounds alarm on Tesla, Elon Musk problem
“That implies Tesla shares falling to about $141, which would represent a roughly 67% decline from the stock’s all-time high in December,” reports Business Insider, adding that he previously made the astute prediction that they would fall 50%.
Tesla stock may see a slight bump in the near future if Musk does proceed with his plan to leave DOGE. When he held an all-hands meeting earlier this month, shares quickly rose, although he didn’t provide too much reassuring information.
But Gerber sees the damage he has done as being so severe that the only way to save the company is for Musk to resign and allow investors to focus on its technology, not its CEO’s social media posts.
Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast
