YIKES: Tesla enters survival mode as stock price drops.

A storm was already brewing in January when Musk announced that 2,500 workers, 7% of the workforce, would be laid off. That came after 9% were laid off the previous June, with Musk saying, “We are making this hard decision now so we never have to do this again.” After two profitable quarters in late 2018, it seemed the time had come for Musk to buckle down and make good on his promise to deliver a mass-market car efficiently and profitably. Then came the first quarter from hell.

Tesla’s financial condition has only deteriorated since then. Musk has responded on two tracks: He’s watching every penny of expense, while talking up a series of projects with varying degrees of likely completion — from a new Model Y crossover to a robo-taxi service he employed to pitch the recent stock-and-bond sale. In the past such products, like the Tesla semi, while derided by critics as vehicular vaporware, have managed to boost the stock price. No more.

Tesla has been in a race to scale up from an unprofitable boutique manufacturer of electric vehicles to a profitable mass-manufacturer, before the existing mass-manufacturers move big into electric vehicles. It’s too soon to say they’ve lost the race, but the company’s mass-market Model 3 hasn’t (yet?) proven the be the financial boon Musk was counting on.