In the latest trading session, Tesla equity slid 1.8% while the benchmark index rose by 0.5%, recording its largest single–day underperformance in six weeks. Trading volume exceeded the 30-day average by 12%, signaling elevated investor activity. Tesla has now undercut the general market in eight of the past ten sessions, raising questions about near-term momentum for the beaten-up electric-vehicle leader.

Tesla CEO announced that after February 14 the company will eliminate one-time purchases of Full Self-Driving (FSD), offering the software exclusively via a monthly plan. This adjustment directly supports a target of reaching 10 million active FSD subscribers—a key metric in the CEO’s $56 billion compensation package approved last year. By steering all new customers into a recurring-revenue model, Tesla expects to smooth cash flow, improve margin visibility and gain flexibility for future price adjustments.

Delivery figures in 2025 fell 8.6% year-over-year to 1.6 million units, with European volumes down 28% and Chinese deliveries at their lowest point since 2022. Major competitors are closing the technology gap: Alphabet’s Waymo has logged over 100 million driverless miles and serves approximately 450,000 weekly rides, while Nvidia unveiled its Alpamayo AI suite at CES, offering open-source vision-language models and simulation tools that could accelerate autonomy for legacy automakers. As these rivals deploy chips, software and data at scale, Tesla’s reliance on in-house development may face fresh scrutiny from both investors and regulators.