By Jordan Grim • October 30, 2025 • 06:11 AM (PDT)
By Jordan Grim • October 30, 2025 • 06:11 AM (PDT)
The veteran auto executive also doesn’t think Elon Musk will achieve his $1 trillion pay package target.
Over the past two decades, Tesla has transformed from a niche startup into one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, essentially defining what a modern electric vehicle looks like.
Yet, as new competitors like BYD from China close in, and Elon Musk divides his time between rockets, robots, and artificial intelligence, a former chief of Stellantis has suggested that Tesla might eventually abandon the car business altogether.
It’s no secret that Tesla’s consistently promised sales growth, long touted by Elon Musk, hasn’t gone according to plan recently. At one point, Musk said Tesla could grow so fast that it could sell 20 million cars annually.
However, its sales peaked at 1.808 million in 2023, before falling to 1.789 million in 2024. This year, sales are projected to fall to around 1.6 million.
Still, we’re talking about Musk, so nobody is surprised that the numbers don’t match his boundless optimism. According to former Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares, Tesla’s future may be far more uncertain than it appears. Tavares, in a recent interview with Les Echos to promote his new memoir, said, “We cannot deny that at some point he might decide to leave the automotive industry and refocus on humanoid robots, SpaceX, or artificial intelligence.” “Elon Musk might have already left the automotive industry.”
Tavares’s comments come as members of Tesla’s board of directors have launched an aggressive campaign to persuade shareholders to approve Elon Musk’s record $1 trillion pay package ahead of a vote on November 6.
To become $1 trillion richer, Musk would have to oversee Tesla achieving some major financial milestones, and Tavares doesn’t think they’ll be met. “Tesla will suffer a huge loss in stock market value because this valuation is excessive,” he said. “I’m not sure Tesla will even exist in 10 years. It’s an innovative group, but they won’t be able to compete with the efficiency of BYD.”
The possibility of Tesla shifting away from car manufacturing towards humanoid robotics or other ventures is not entirely impossible, although Tavares’s own track record doesn’t make him the most reliable predictor. His own tenure at Stellantis ended abruptly last year amid internal conflicts.
More recently, he suggested that Stellantis itself might break apart under the strain of cultural and strategic differences between its Italian, French, and American divisions—a prediction that, if nothing else, shows Tavares is consistent in predicting upheaval.