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Tesla chief executive Elon Musk criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, a day after the agency asked a judge to despise him for allegedly violating the terms of last year's settlement.
The SEC's latest complaint says that a message from Musk on Feb. 19 about Tesla's production was inaccurate.
Musk initially said that Tesla would manufacture "about" 500,000 vehicles in 2019, but then revised the tweet hours later.
"That meant an annualized production rate at the end of 2019, probably around 500,000, or 10,000 cars a week," he said. "Shipments for the year are still estimated at about $ 400,000."
After information was revealed that the agency was seeking an injunction against him, Musk said Monday night that he had already mentioned these numbers in a call for results.
"The SEC has forgotten to read Tesla's results report, which clearly states between $ 350,000 and $ 500,000," said Musk. "That's embarrassing …"
Tesla shares were down nearly 2.5% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. They had dropped 5% Monday night.
Tesla's share price gave the electric car maker a market value of $ 51 billion, which is almost as high as the $ 56 billion market value of General Motors, the largest automaker US, with a market capitalization greater than $ 34 billion.
But Tesla shares have fallen more than 10% this year and 15% over the last 12 months.
Musk and the SEC have fought several times in recent months. The two parties settled in October a dispute over some tweets that Musk had announced earlier in 2018, saying it was considering privatizing Tesla and that it had already secured funding. One of the conditions of this agreement is that someone is required to supervise and approve everything that Musk intends to tell the public about the company.
Investors had hoped the settlement would allow Tesla to end the whole affair and focus on its ambitious plans to increase production, build new plants and develop new vehicles.
"Since Tesla / Musk reached an agreement with the SEC in October, this black cloud was in the rearview mirror of the company (and investors) .This last tweet (which most investors rejected at the time ) represents a joker that could potentially bring this tornado of uncertainty is back in the history of Tesla until it is resolved, "said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, in a note sent Tuesday morning. "At this point, we are more concerned that this issue is another source of distraction for Musk & Co., as the company goes through one of the most difficult periods in its history and that certainty is not there. Did not need this news. "
Continued turnover in the company is also worrying. More recently, Advocate General Dane Butswinkas left the company one day after Musk tweeted his forecast for 2019 regarding the production of vehicles. Butswinkas was only at work for two months.
Deepak Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer, announced his retirement when Tesla announced its fourth quarter results in January.
"Certainly, we do not like to see the turnover that we observed between senior management, Deepak Ahuja and the general attorney," said Tuesday Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch, in CNBC's "Squawk Box". "This is not a great sign for the stability of the organization.We think there is enough depth in the management for this to continue, and certainly a sufficiently large window in terms of Competitive environment so that they can continue to take a share of the market But the volatility in the staff and the news flow certainly worries us. "
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