Tesla

Nov. 7 (UPI) — Tesla shareholders approved an unprecedented new package for CEO Elon Musk that could see him become the world’s first trillionaire.

The firm said 75% of shareholders with voting rights on Thursday backed Musk’s 10-year pay deal, which could net him $1 trillion over that time by boosting his stake in Tesla by more than 423 million shares.

The share bonanza is contingent on him delivering on a promise to drive up Tesla’s market capitalization five-fold from is current level of around $1.5 trillion to $8.5 trillion, roughly double the size of the Japanese economy.

Shareholders at the annual general meeting at Tesla HQ in Austin, Texas, voted it through on the recommendation of Tesla’s board, arguing Musk might quit if it were rejected and that the company could not afford to lose him.

Counsel from independent advisors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services who said the “astronomical” deal should be rejected due to “unmitigated concerns surrounding the special award’s magnitude and design,” was largely ignored.

Addressing the meeting after the result, Musk thanked the board and shareholders, saying what Tesla was poised to do was not just “a new chapter in the future of Tesla, but a whole new book.”

Under the deal, Musk will receive the stock in tranches tied to delivering financial and production targets, including 20 million new electric vehicles rolling off production lines, 10 million full self-driving subscriptions​, 1 million Optimus humanoid robots and 1 million robotaxis in service.

The first block of stock gets paid to Musk when Telsa market capitalization reaches $2 trillion with the next nine awarded each time the company’s value rises by another $500 billion, up to $6.5 trillion.

Two additional rises in market capitalization, each of $1 trillion, bringing the value to $8.5 trillion, are required for the final two stock grants to kick in.

While the deal is performance-based, it’s not set in stone — with Musk still in line to earn more $50 billion even if he fails to meet the bulk of the targets — and includes riders for so-called “covered events” with the potential to impact Tesla’s future designs, manufacturing and sales.

These include natural disasters, wars, pandemics and changes to “international, federal, state and local law, regulations or other governmental action or inaction.”

In June 2024, Musk reincorporated Tesla in Texas, the company’s headquarters and center of operations, moving from Delaware six months after a court there struck down a $56 billion pay deal the board awarded to Musk in 2018, ruling it was “unfair” and that Musk held excessive power over the rules and size of the deal.

On the same day, shareholders voted to reinstate the package, at the time the largest in corporate history.

In December 2024, the Delaware judge in the case reaffirmed her ruling in favor of the complainant, shareholder Tornetta, and ordered Musk must return what he had already received from the package.

The board eventually awarded Musk a $29 billion “good faith” package in August, aimed at keeping Musk at the helm, that would see him granted 96 million shares after two years of service in a “senior leadership role” at Tesla.

Musk’s mega-deal on Thursday came three weeks after Tesla reported Tesla reported third quarter profits down 37%, despite a jump in revenue to a record $28.1 billion on stronger sales of its electric cars in the domestic market.

Shareholders approved the pay package with as much as 75 percent support on Thursday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has scored a resounding victory as shareholders have approved a pay package of as much as $878bn over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the electric vehicle (EV) maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.

Shares of Tesla rose more than 3 percent in after-hours trading after the shareholders voted on Thursday. The proposal was approved with more than 75 percent support.

Musk took to the stage in Austin, Texas, along with dancing robots. “What we are about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book,” he said. “This really is going to be quite the story.”

He added: “Other shareholder meetings are like snooze fests, but ours are bangers. I mean, look at this. This is sick.”

Shareholders also re-elected three directors on Tesla’s board and voted in favour of a replacement pay plan for Musk’s services because a legal challenge has held up a previous package.

The vote, analysts have said, is a positive for Tesla’s stock, whose valuation hangs on Musk’s vision of making vehicles drive themselves, expanding robotaxis across the United States and selling humanoid robots, even though his far-right political rhetoric has hurt the Tesla brand this year.

A win for Musk was widely expected as the billionaire was allowed to exercise the full voting rights of his roughly 15 percent stake after the carmaker moved to Texas from Delaware, where a legal challenge has held up a previous pay rise.

The approval comes even after opposition from some major investors, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.

Tesla’s board had said Musk could quit if the pay package was not approved.

The vote will also allay investor concerns that Musk’s focus has been diluted with his work in politics as well as in running his other companies, including rocket maker SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI.

The board and many investors who lent their endorsement have said the nearly $1 trillion package benefits shareholders in the longer run, as Musk must ensure Tesla achieves a series of milestones to get paid.

Goals for Musk over the next decade include the company delivering 20 million vehicles, having one million robotaxis in operation, selling one million robots and earning as much as $400bn in core profit. But in order for him to get paid, Tesla’s stock value has to rise in tandem, first to $2 trillion from the current $1.5 trillion, and all the way to $8.5 trillion.

Under the new plan, Musk could earn as much as $878bn in Tesla stock over 10 years. Musk would be given as much as $1 trillion in stock but would have to make some payments back to Tesla.

Out of sheer darkness, the Batman logo was emblazoned across the 86-foot-wide screen and dazzled my young eyes.

From Hollywood, I was instantly whisked away to Gotham City. The iconic DC comic book came to life and the booming thuds of the Caped Crusader smashing a pair of common thieves was real.

These were my first vivid memories of watching a movie in the larger-than-life Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard, and being amazed by the screen’s size and the sense of being transported into another galaxy.

But the dome is magical on the outside, as well as the inside. The concrete geodesic dome is made up of 316 individual hexagonal and pentagonal shapes in 16 sizes. Like Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, it’s a structure that has become a Hollywood landmark.

The Dome represented a special place for me, until it became just another of the dozens of businesses in L.A. that never returned after pandemic closures in 2020.

Ever since, there have been rumblings that the Dome would eventually reopen. Although nothing is definitive, my colleague Tracy Brown offered a bit of hope in a recent article.

What’s the latest

Dome Center LLC, the company that owns the property along Sunset Boulevard near Vine Street, filed an application Oct. 28 for a conditional-use permit to sell alcohol for on-site consumption at the Cinerama Dome Theater and adjoining multiplex. The application doesn’t mention an reopening date or any details about movie screenings returning to the dome but suggests that a reopening may be in the works.

Elizabeth Peterson-Gower of Place Weavers Inc., said Dome Center is seeking a new permit that would “allow for the continued sale and dispensing of a full line of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption in conjunction with the existing Cinerama Dome Theater, 14 auditoriums within the Arclight Cinemas Theater Complex, and restaurant/cafe with two outdoor dining terraces from 7:00 am – 4:00 am, daily,” according to the application filed by the company’s representative.

This would would be a renewal of the current 10-year permit, which expires Nov. 5.

The findings document filed with the City Planning Department also mentions that “when the theater reopens, it will bring additional jobs to Hollywood and reactivate the adjacent streets, increasing safety and once again bringing vibrancy to the surrounding area.”

A representative for Dome Center LLC did not respond immediately Friday to a request for comment.

What happened to the Dome?

The Cinerama Dome opened in 1963 and had been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Since the closing, the news about the future of the theater has been ambiguous.

In April, 2021, the owner of Pacific Theatres and ArcLight Cinemas announced they would not reopen the beloved theater even after the pandemic ended. But then, in December, sources told The Times that plans were in the works to reopen the Cinerama Dome and the attached theater complex.

In 2022, news that the property owners obtained a liquor license for the renamed “Cinerama Hollywood” fueled hope among the L.A. film-loving community’s that the venue was still on track to return.

But the Cinerama Dome’s doors have remained closed.

Signs of life

At a public hearing regarding the adjacent Blue Note Jazz Club in June, Peterson-Gower reportedly indicated that although there were not yet any definitive plans, the property owners had reached out to her to next discuss the future of the Cinerama Dome.

Perhaps this new permit application is a sign plans are finally coming together.

After the kind of year Los Angeles has endured — with devastating fires and demoralizing immigration raids — it would certainly bolster the spirits of all Angelenos to have another local landmark reopen its doors to welcome movie-loving patrons like me.

Today’s top stories

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks as he stands with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom during an election night news conference at a Democratic Party office in Sacramento on Nov. 4, 2025.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Voters approve Prop. 50

After World Series celebration, ICE and Border Patrol gather at Dodger Stadium once again

• Dozens of federal immigration agents were seen staging in a Dodger Stadium parking lot Tuesday morning, a day after the team returned home to celebrate its back-to-back championships with thousands of Angelenos.
• Videos shared with The Times and on TikTok show agents in unmarked vehicles, donning green vests and equipped with white zip ties in parking lot 13.
• Five months ago, protests erupted outside the stadium gates when federal immigration used the parking lot as a processing site for people who had been arrested in a nearby immigration raid.

Sen. Alex Padilla says he won’t run for California governor

• “It is with a full heart and even more commitment than ever that I am choosing to not run for governor of California next year,” Padilla told reporters outside his Senate office in Washington.
• Padilla instead said he will focus on countering President Trump’s agenda in Congress, where Democrats are currently in the minority in both the House and Senate, but hope to regain some political clout after the 2026 midterm elections.

What else is going on

Commentary and opinions

This morning’s must-read

For your downtime

A view of landscaping at the home of Susan Gottleib and her Gottleib Native Garden in Beverly Hills.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: What’s the best hiking trail in SoCal?

Alexandra writes: “Sullivan Canyon, for sure.”

Rochelle writes: “Can’t ever go wrong in Griffith Park, but for overall exercise, killer views, artifacts, and entertainment without wearing yourself out, my hiking partner and I like the Solstice Canyon Loop in Malibu, 3.4 miles. The most popular hike in the canyon, for good reason!”

Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally … your photo of the day

Joe Rinaudo hopes to host tours and educational opportunities at his home theater and museum through a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving photoplayers.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Jason Armond at the home of Joe Rinaudo, the foremost expert on photoplayers, who is preserving the soundtrack to a bygone movie era.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

Nov. 3 (UPI) — Federal regulators have ordered Tesla to comply with an investigation into possibly defective door handles that reportedly led to trapped passengers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the Elon Musk-owned Tesla that the federal government received scores of complaints on its electric vehicles.

As of Oct. 27, the NHTSA said it received 16 reports of exterior, retractable door handles becoming “inoperative due to low 12VDC battery voltage in certain MY 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles.”

Reports indicated children were trapped in the cars in some cases, and owners unable to enter or exit vehicles due to battery that impeded door handle use.

A deadly 2024 crash in Wisconsin led to a lawsuit that claimed Tesla was negligent in its door handle designs.

Meanwhile, Tesla officials have until Dec. 10 to provide records to federal regulators.

In Mexico and parts of Central America, Día de los Muertos is regarded as a day to commemorate and celebrate departed family and friends.

For generations, Greater Southern California has joined the tradition with altars, Aztec dances and displays of marigolds in late October to early November. The day to honor the dead also has served as a day of gathering among the living.

However, some celebrations are being reconsidered because of fears that participants may get caught in deportation raids executed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

This week the Department of Homeland Security announced it had deported more than half a million undocumented people since the Trump Administration took over in January. More than 2 million people have left the nation overall, the department said.

With raids continuing, some organizers of this weekend’s Día de los Muertos events are moving ahead with celebrations, while others have canceled them.

Times reporters spoke with event organizers to learn what they’re doing differently.

Cancellation is the policy

My colleague Suhauna Hussain reported in mid-September that Long Beach was nixing its annual parade, which drew sizable crowds in the past.

The event was canceled at the request of City Councilmember Mary Zendejas “out of an abundance of caution,” according to city spokesperson Kevin Lee, because it’s “a large and very public outdoor event.” Officials were not aware of any targeted federal enforcement activity.

“This decision did not come lightly,” Zendejas and the city said in statements. The decision addresses “genuine fears raised by community members, especially those who may face the possibility of sudden and indiscriminate federal enforcement actions that undermine the sense of security necessary to participate fully in public life.”

Roberto Carlos Lemus, a marketer who brought food trucks and other vendors to the festival last year, called the cancellation “very sad.”

“Everyone’s very sad about the situation. Día de los Muertos has been one of the largest celebrations for a very long time, and the city has done a great job putting it on,” Lemus told The Times. “Unfortunately, with Latinos being kidnapped and attacked by ICE and the current administration, I do understand why they made the decision that they made.”

The action was mirrored in other places. Santa Barbara’s Museum of Contemporary Art canceled its own parade because the “threat to undocumented families remains very real.” In Northern California, organizations in Berkeley and Eureka also canceled celebrations for similar reasons.

Moving ahead

Others are not letting the immigration raids interfere with the celebration.

Last year, tens of thousands of visitors patronized Division 9 Gallery’s Day of the Dead celebration in downtown Riverside. This year’s free two-day event will feature Aztec dancers, a pageant, processions, Lucha Libre wrestlers and altars — the traditional stands along with ofrendras placed inside classic cars — on Saturday and Sunday.

The event, located on Market Street between University Avenue and 14th Street, continues to grow in popularity, organizer Cosmé Cordova said.

Cordova said he’s not sure if there will be 60 altars, as was the case last year, or if 45,000 people will attend Saturday, the most popular of the two days.

“Because of what’s going on, people are afraid,” he said. “But we’re not canceling.”

Cordova said he’s hired security and noted that Riverside police and the mayor will be present.

“We’re working with the city and others to make sure everything is going to be good,” Cordova said. “This is an event that the community comes out for and I’m not concerned about anyone breaking it up.”

The week’s biggest stories

Gladstone’s Malibu, an iconic dining landmark, pictured partially smoking from the Palisades Fire on Jan. 8, 2025.

(Connor Sheets/Los Angeles Times)

Palisades Fire investigation

Dodgers World Series coverage

Trump Administration polices and reactions

Crime, courts and policing

More big stories

This week’s must-read

More great reads

For your weekend

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

It was one of those performances that will be spoken about for years.

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani delivered a night for the ages in the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the clinching fourth game of the National League Championship Series on Friday night.

After slumping throughout the postseason, the Japanese sensation hit three home runs and pitched six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts at Chavez Ravine to advance the Dodgers to the World Series.

The effort immediately drew praise from baseball writers as the “greatest game ever,” “the performance of a lifetime,” and highlighted the “improbability of his greatness.”

Yes, the Dodgers are advancing to their second-straight World Series, where they’ll face either the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, beginning Friday.

They will attempt to become the first Major League Baseball team to win consecutive crowns since the New York Yankees’ threepeat from 1998 to 2000.

However, the night became a celebration of Ohtani, as documented by my sports colleagues.

Let’s take a look at some of what made Friday such a magical evening.

Trying to understand what Ohtani accomplished

Columnist Bill Plaschke asked Dodgers fans if they realized what they were watching:

Los Angeles, can you understand the singular greatness that plays here? Fall Classic, are you ready for another dose of Sho-time?

Ohtani and the Dodgers are back on baseball’s grandest stage, arguably the best player in baseball history concocting arguably the best single-game performance in postseason history.

The final score was 5-1, but, really, it was over at 1-0, Ohtani’s thunderous leadoff homer after his thundering three strikeouts igniting a dancing Dodger Stadium crowd and squelching the Brewers before the first inning was even 10 minutes old.

How far did that first home-run actually travel? Back, back, back into forever, it was the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in baseball history, regular season or postseason, a feat unmatched by even the legendary Babe Ruth.

The unicorn Ohtani basically created the same wizardry again in the fourth inning and added a third longball in the seventh in carrying the Dodgers to their second consecutive World Series and fifth in nine years while further cementing their status as one of baseball’s historic dynasties.

Why was the effort surprising?

On that off-day between Games 2 and 3 of the National League Championship Series, Ohtani looked like a man on a mission, according to Dodgers beat writer Jack Harris in his game story:

Ohtani took one of the best rounds of batting practice anyone in attendance had seen, getting into the real work of trying to fix a swing that had abandoned him for much of this postseason.

In 32 swings, Ohtani hit 14 home runs. Many of them were moonshots. One even clanged off the roof of the right-field pavilion.

Over his previous seven games, going back to the start of the NL Division Series, he had two hits in 25 at-bats.

He had recorded 12 strikeouts and plenty more puzzling swing decisions. And he seemed, at least in the estimation of some around the team, unusually perturbed as public criticisms of his play started to mount.

Then, two days later, a tour de force performance that will be talked about forever.

“He woke up this morning with people questioning him,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, during an alcohol-soaked celebration in the clubhouse afterward. “And 12 hours later, he’s standing on the podium as the NLCS MVP.”

Up next for the Dodgers is the World Series and perhaps some more Ohtani magic.

The week’s biggest stories

Crime, courts and policing

More Dodgers National League Championship coverage

Trump administration, policies and reaction

More big stories

This week’s must-reads

More great reads

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Jason Frank Rothenberg)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

The electric carmaker had unveiled chief Elon Musk’s proposed $1 trillion compensation plan in September.

Tesla’s proposed $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk has come under renewed scrutiny after proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) urged investors to vote against what could be the largest compensation plan ever awarded to a company chief.

ISS’s comments on Friday marks the second consecutive year that it has urged shareholders to reject a compensation plan for Musk.

Proxy advisers often sway major institutional investors, including the passive funds that hold large stakes in Tesla.

The ISS recommendation adds pressure on Tesla’s board before a closely watched November 6 shareholder meeting and renews scrutiny of Musk’s compensation after a Delaware court earlier voided his $56bn pay package.

Musk’s record Tesla pay plan could still hand him tens of billions of dollars even if he falls short of most of its ambitious targets, however, thanks to a structure that rewards partial achievement and soaring share prices.

Last month, Tesla’s board proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk in what it described as the largest corporate pay package in history, setting ambitious performance targets and aiming to address his push for greater control over the company.

ISS said that while the board’s goal was to retain Musk because of his “track record and vision”, the 2025 pay package “locks in extraordinarily high pay opportunities over the next ten years” and “reduces the board’s ability to meaningfully adjust future pay levels.”

Tesla’s shares rose after the compensation plan was unveiled last month, as investors believe the pay package would incentivise Musk to focus on the company’s strategy.

“Many people come to Tesla to specifically work with Elon, so we recognise that retaining and incentivising him will, in the long run, help us retain and recruit better talent,” Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson said in a video posted to Tesla’s X handle on Friday.

Unlike the 2018 pay deal, Musk will be allowed to vote using his shares this time, giving him about 13.5 percent of Tesla’s voting power, according to a securities filing last month. That stake alone could be enough to secure approval.

The proxy adviser cited the “astronomical” size of the proposed grant, design features that could deliver very high payouts for partial goal achievement and potential dilution for existing investors.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.

ISS valued the stock-based award at $104bn, higher than Tesla’s own estimate of $87.8bn.

The grant would vest only if Tesla reaches market capitalisation milestones up to $8.5 trillion and operational targets, including delivery of 20 million vehicles, one million robotaxis and $400bn in adjusted core earnings.

The proxy adviser’s guidance on Musk’s pay was part of a wider set of voting recommendations issued on Friday.

As of 3:45pm in New York (19:45 GMT), Tesla’s stock was up 2.4 percent.

Elon Musk’s $56bn pay package from Tesla should have been restored by a vote of the company’s shareholders last year, a Tesla attorney has said to the Delaware Supreme Court in the United States.

The Tesla lawyer made his arguments on Wednesday as one of the biggest corporate legal battles entered its final stage after a lower court judge had in January 2024 rescinded the Tesla CEO’s record compensation. The company is also appealing a ruling by the lower court that rejected as legally invalid a vote by shareholders to restore the pay package.

“This was the most informed stockholder vote in Delaware history,” Jeffrey Wall, an attorney for Tesla, told the justices. “Reaffirming that would resolve this case.”

The case’s outcome could have substantial consequences for the state of Delaware, its widely used corporate law, and its Court of Chancery, a once-favoured venue for business disputes that has recently been accused of hostility towards powerful entrepreneurs.

The Court of Chancery ruling striking down Musk’s pay has become a rallying cry for Delaware critics. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled that the Tesla board lacked independence from Musk when it approved the pay package in 2018 and that shareholders lacked key information when they voted overwhelmingly in favour of it. As a result, she applied a demanding legal standard and found the pay unfair to investors.

Musk did not attend the arguments, which were held in a special court to accommodate the 65 people in attendance, mostly lawyers.

The defendants, current and former Tesla directors, denied wrongdoing and said McCormick misinterpreted the facts and the law.

Dexit

Tesla argued in Dover, Delaware that the five justices on Delaware’s high court had three avenues to reverse the lower court ruling.

They could find that Musk, who owned 21.9 percent of Tesla stock in 2018, did not control the board pay negotiations and that shareholders were fully informed when they voted to approve it that year. They could determine that rescinding the pay was an improper remedy because it did not undo the work that Musk had done or the gains that shareholders had received. Or they could determine that last year’s vote demonstrated shareholders wanted to accept the pay deal, despite the legal flaws.

“Shareholders in 2024 knew exactly what they were voting for,” Wall said.

Greg Varallo, an attorney for Richard Tornetta, the small investor who brought the case in 2018, said if the court accepted ratification, it would allow a party to change the outcome after a court case had run its course. “Lawsuits would be interminable”, he told the justices.

Varallo tried to convince the justices the lower court ruling was a result of careful fact-finding and based on settled law. “There is nothing extraordinary about this trial opinion,” he said. “What makes it truly extraordinary is that it addresses the largest pay package in human history, awarded to the richest man on earth, who is also one of the most powerful men on earth.”

After the Musk pay ruling, large companies, including Tesla, Dropbox, and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, switched their legal homes to Texas or Nevada, where courts are friendlier toward directors. Delaware lawmakers responded to the corporate departures, a trend known as “Dexit,” by overhauling its corporate law.

If Musk loses the appeal, he will still reap tens of billions of dollars in stock from the electric vehicle (EV) company, which agreed in August to a replacement deal if his 2018 plan is not restored. Tesla has said the replacement plan will cost $25bn or more in accounting charges.

The company said the replacement award was meant to focus the attention of Musk, who said earlier this year that he was forming a new US political party, on transitioning Tesla to robotics and automated driving. Tesla is now incorporated in Texas, where it is far more difficult for a shareholder to challenge board decisions.

New pay plan

Tesla’s board last month proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan, highlighting confidence in Musk’s ability to steer the company in a new direction, even as Tesla loses ground to Chinese rivals in key markets amid softening EV demand.

The justices are considering the appeal of the pay ruling as well as the $345m legal fee that McCormick ordered Tesla to pay to the attorneys for Tornetta, who held just nine Tesla shares when he sued to block the pay deal. The court typically takes months to rule.

Tesla estimated in 2018 that the stock options plan would be worth $56bn if the company met operational and financial goals, which it did. Because the stock continued to appreciate, the options are currently worth closer to $120bn, by far the largest executive compensation ever. Musk is the world’s richest person with a fortune of around $480bn, according to Forbes.

The defendants have argued that McCormick erred in finding social and business ties to Musk compromised their independence, and said Tesla shareholders were informed of the economic terms of the pay deal before they approved the plan. The directors said she should have reviewed the pay package under the “business judgment” standard, which protects directors from second-guessing by courts.

The directors have long argued the pay package performed as hoped – it focused the attention of Musk, a serial entrepreneur, and he transformed Tesla from a startup into one of the world’s most valuable companies.

In the last few weeks, USC has found itself caught in a political tug-of-war that could potentially change campus life permanently.

Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened on Oct. 2 to cut “billions” in state funding, including the popular Cal Grants that many students rely upon, if California schools bowed to pressure from the Trump administration.

Newsom’s messaging came in response to a White House directive that asked USC and eight other major national universities to commit to President Trump’s views on gender identity, admissions, diversity and free speech in exchange for priority access to federal dollars.

The topic was covered in depth by my colleagues Jaweed Kaleem and Melody Gutierrez.

Let’s jump into their article and see what options lie ahead for USC.

What the White House told USC

USC and other universities were asked to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which commits them to adopt the White House’s conservative vision for America’s campuses.

The Oct. 1 letter also suggests colleges should align with Trump’s views on student discipline, college affordability and the importance of hard sciences over liberal arts.

The compact asks universities to accept the government’s definition of gender — excluding transgender people — and apply it to campus bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports teams.

But the White House letter to USC and other campuses is more stick than carrot.

The government says it will dole out new federal money and give preference to the universities that accept the deal over those that do not agree to the terms.

Signing on would give universities priority access to some federal grants, but White House officials say the government money would not be limited solely to those schools.

How Trump wants to cut back on international students

The federal compact would also severely restrict international student enrollment to 15% of a college’s entire undergraduate student body. Plus, no more than 5% could come from a single country.

That provision would hit USC hard, where 26% of the fall 2025 freshman class is international. Half of those students hail from either China or India.

Cutting into that rate would be a financial blow to USC, where full-fee tuition from international students is a major source of revenue. The university has already endured hundreds of layoffs this year amid budget troubles.

How Newsom is responding

Newsom wrote that “if any California university signs this radical agreement, they’ll lose billions in state funding — including Cal Grants — instantly.”

He added, “California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom.”

Students become eligible for Cal Grants through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application. In 2024-25, $2.5 billion in Cal Grants were doled out to California students.

What is USC doing?

The school’s faculty members strongly denounced Trump’s offer at a meeting Monday, calling it “antithetical to principles of academic freedom.”

But interim President Beong-Soo Kim told the roughly 500 attendees that the university “has not made any kind of final decision.”

One of the nine schools presented with Trump’s deal, MIT, forcefully rejected the White House’s proposal last week. (It is unclear how the White House selected the nine schools that were offered the deal.)

Notes from a reporter’s notepad

Kaleem, one of the Times reporters on this story, noted that universities throughout Southern California, including USC, UCLA and others in the UC or Cal State systems, find themselves under siege from the White House, whether they were offered Trump’s proposal or not.

“Grants for funding and research are being held up because of investigations into antisemitism or diversity or other issues,” he said. “There are very few universities untouched by the push from Trump on higher education.”

Kaleem spoke with several politically active students and professors at USC who see Newsom’s gesture as a blessing in disguise.

“They felt the governor’s threat to take away money actually gives the USC campus cover to resist Trump more forcefully,” Kaleem said.

Now USC administrators could defy the White House under the guise of trying to avoid losing funding from the state, according to those who spoke with Kaleem.

“They could say they can’t be blamed because they’re being forced to resist Trump,” he said. “It’s an interesting potential strategy.”

For more, check out the full article here.

Today’s top stories

Part of the debate over the ongoing federal government shutdown focuses on funding for the treatment of undocumented immigrants at hospital emergency rooms.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

Trump claims Democrats want to use federal funds to give undocumented residents healthcare. That’s misleading

• Undocumented immigrants cannot access federal programs, but California law provides state-funded Medi-Cal coverage costing the state $11.2 billion annually.
• President Trump claimed recently that Democrats “want to have illegal aliens come into our country and get massive healthcare at the cost to everybody else.”
• Democrats called Trump’s assertion an absolute lie, accusing Republicans of wanting to slash federal healthcare benefits to Americans in need to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.

Beutner launches bid for L.A. mayor, vowing to fight ‘injustices’ under Trump

• Former L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner kicked off his campaign for mayor on Monday with a video message that hits not just Mayor Karen Bass but also President Trump and his immigration crackdown.
• Beutner vowed to counter Trump’s “assault on our values,” while also criticizing City Hall over homelessness, housing costs and rising city fees.

Three more L.A. County deaths tied to synthetic kratom

• The deaths have been linked to kratom, a compound that is being synthetically reproduced and sold over the counter as a cure-all for a host of ailments, the county Department of Public Health announced Friday.
• The compound was found to be a contributing cause of death in three residents who were between the ages of 18 and 40, according to the county health department.
• That brings the total number of recent overdose deaths related to kratom in L.A. County to six.

What else is going on

Commentary and opinions

This morning’s must read

Other must reads

For your downtime

The Griselda’s Revenge cocktail from the Black Lagoon pop-up bar.

(Black Lagoon)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: What frustrates you the most about parking in L.A.?

Karen writes: “My frustration is that the city started making people pay to park along the road up to the Griffith Observatory. That was the one free and delightful place to get both some sight-seeing and some good walking in after the hunt for a spot. It felt very unfair and opportunistic of the city to limit access to city parks by charging that fee.”

Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally … your photo of the day

Theatergoers take their seats to see “Les Miserables” on Oct. 8 in Los Angeles.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Jason Armond at opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.

Have a great week, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

There’s something about Thai cuisine that is warm and welcoming.

Perhaps it’s the fire that bird’s eye chili brings to a dish, or maybe the bold punchiness of tom yum soup.

My colleague and food critic Bill Addison referred to Thai as “a pillar cuisine of Los Angeles.”

And why not?

The city boasts the world’s largest Thai population outside of Thailand. Those who open restaurants open our palates to a diverse range of flavors and sensations from their micro-regional cooking styles.

Addison is wary of using the term “best.” Instead, he crafted a list of his 15 favorite Thai restaurants in Los Angeles. Here, we’ll highlight a handful of those choices, in Addison’s own words.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Anajak Thai (Sherman Oaks)

If you’ve had any passing interest in Los Angeles dining culture this decade, you probably know the story: Anajak Thai was founded in 1981 by chef Ricky Pichetrungsi, whose recipes merge his Thai upbringing and Cantonese heritage, and his wife Rattikorn.

In 2019, when Pichetrungsi suffered a stroke, the couple’s son Justin left a thriving career as an art director at Walt Disney Imagineering to take over the restaurant.

It changed his life, and it changed Los Angeles, with Justin’s creative individualism — specifically his Thai Taco Tuesday phenomenon.

That’s when the menu crisscrosses fish tacos lit up by chili crisp and limey nam jim with wok-fragrant drunken noodles and Dungeness crab fried rice. Add what has become one of L.A.’s great wine lists, and the restaurant has catapulted into one of the city’s great dining sensations.

The restaurant closed for a couple of months over the summer for a renovation, revealing a brighter, significantly resituated interior — and introducing an open kitchen and a second dining room — in August.

The menu didn’t radically alter: It’s the same multi-generational cooking, tracing the family heritage, leaning ever-further into freshness, perfecting the details in familiar dishes.

Fried chicken sheathed in rice flour batter and scattered with fried shallots, the star of the Justin-era menu, remains, as does the sublime mango sticky rice that Rattikorn makes when she can find fragrant fruit in season and at its ripest.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Ayara Thai (Westchester)

Owner Andy Asapahu grew up in a Thai-Chinese community in Bangkok.

Anna Asapahu, his wife, was raised in Lampang, a small city in the verdant center of northern Thailand.

They melded their backgrounds into a sprawling multi-regional menu of soups, salads, noodles and curries when they opened Ayara in Westchester in 2004.

Their daughters Vanda and Cathy oversee the restaurant these days, but Anna’s recipe for khao soi endures as the marquee dish.

Khao soi seems to have become nearly as popular in Los Angeles as pad Thai. This one is quintessential: chicken drumsticks braised in silky coconut milk infused with lemongrass and other piercing aromatics, poured over egg noodles, sharpened with shallots and pickled mustard greens and garnished with lime and a thatch of fried noodles.

The counterpoints are all in play: a little sweetness from palm sugar and a lot of complexity from fish sauce, a bump of chile heat to offset the richness.

Pair it with a standout dish that reflects Andy’s upbringing, like pad pong kari, a stir-fry of curried shrimp and egg with Chinese celery and other vegetables, smoothed with a splash of cream and served over rice. The restaurant has a spacious dining room.

Note that lunch is technically carry-out only, though the family sets up the patio space outside the restaurant for those who want to stick around.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Holy Basil (Atwater Village)

Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat and Tongkamal “Joy” Yuon run two wholly different Holy Basils.

Downtown’s Santee Passage food hall houses the original, a window that does a brisk takeout business cranking out Arpapornnopparat’s visceral, full-throttle interpretations of Bangkok street food.

His pad see ew huffs with smokiness from the wok. The fluffy-crackly skin of moo krob pops and gives way to satiny pork belly underneath. Douse “grandma’s fry fish and rice” with chile vinegar, and in its sudden brightness you’ll understand why the dish was his childhood favorite.

Their sit-down restaurant in Atwater Village is a culmination of their ambitions. The space might be small, with much of the seating against a wall between two buildings, but the cooking is tremendous.

Arpapornnopparat leaps ahead, rendering a short, revolving menu of noodles, curries, chicken wings, fried rice and vegetable dishes that is more experimental, weaving in elements of his father’s Chinese heritage, his time growing up in India and the Mexican and Japanese flavors he loves in Los Angeles.

One creation that shows up in spring but I wait for all year: fried soft-shell crab and shrimp set in a thrilling, confounding sauce centered around salted egg yolk, browned butter, shrimp paste and scallion oil. In its sharp left turns of salt and acid and sultry funk, the brain longs to consult a GPS. But no map exists. These flavor combinations are from an interior land.

If you enjoyed those selections, check out the full list here. Happy dining.

The week’s biggest stories

(Carlin Stiehl/For the Times)

Palisades fire and other blazes

Trump administration policies and reactions

Crime, courts and policing

More big stories

This week’s must-reads

More great reads

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

With Tesla’s (TSLA 1.32%) core electric vehicle business struggling this year, analysts and investors were anxious to get a glance at how EV deliveries would trend in the third quarter. The company delivered big time, reporting close to 497,100 deliveries, smashing Wall Street estimates of of 447,600. However, Tesla’s stock dipped immediately following the news, as the strong beat was not enough to excite Wall Street. What gives?

Expiration of the EV tax credit

Tesla’s third-quarter deliveries of nearly 497,100 blew out estimates and rose 7% year over year. That’s a sharp reversal from the first two quarters of 2025, when the company reported deliveries that fell 12% year over year compared to the first half of 2024.

Image source: Tesla.

But analysts clearly knew the quarter was going to be strong because President Trump’s big legislative spending bill passed by Congress earlier this year eliminated the $7,500 EV tax credit on Sept. 30, the last day of the third quarter. It became evident that consumers would likely rush to purchase Teslas before the cost of the vehicles increased.

According to Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, Tesla saw a 35% year-over-year increase in its U.S. sales in the third quarter, which he attributes to the rush before the EV tax credit expiration. “Investors should largely throw out the positive number,” Munster said, noting that the “the future will be autonomy.”

Still, other analysts were more optimistic. Morgan Stanley analyst said that Q3 deliveries came in at the top end of hedge fund estimates ranging from 450,000 to 500,000 deliveries. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called the quarter a “massive bounceback” and said he is still high on the company’s autonomous vehicles and humanoid robotics businesses, which Ives and Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt think could catapult Tesla to a $2 trillion to $3 trillion market cap by 2026 or 2027.

Ultimately, I’m guessing the disappointing share action could be attributed to Tesla stock’s recent run-up. The stock is up close to 60% over the past six months.

Current state of the bull-bear debate

Tesla is still one of if not the most hotly debated stocks on Wall Street, with the bulls confident that it is the most innovative AI company in the world and the bears pointing to its staggering valuation of nearly 250 times forward earnings. As of this writing, Tesla trades at nearly $440 per share. The lowest Wall Street price target is an astounding $19 per share, while the high is $600 per share, which shows just how split the Street is on the name.

But one thing I think both the bulls and bears agree on is that the future of Tesla is going to come down to its autonomous driving business, for which Tesla is in the early stages of building out an autonomous ride-hailing fleet, and the humanoid robots business. If these businesses are as successful as analysts like Ives believe, than the stock can keep moving higher. But hiccups or a more competitive market than people think could send it tumbling.

Tesla has begun to launch pilot autonomous driving programs in select cities, while humanoid robots are still in prototype stage. The advantage of Tesla’s robotaxi business is that the vehicles can reportedly be built at a fraction of the cost of rival WayMo, which is also operating in several cities. However, it remains to be seen whether the technology can truly be perfected and deemed safe enough to be fully commercialized.

The simple reason I choose to avoid Tesla is that I think the market has assumed too much success in businesses that the public still knows far too little about. If Tesla is successful and jumps to $600 per share, that’s 40% upside, but if robotaxis and humanoid robots don’t work out as well as hoped, who knows that the stock is worth. As stocks get larger and surpass a $1 trillion market cap, maintaining the growth to hold such a high valuation becomes more difficult. The risk-reward proposition is not attractive to me.

Oct. 6 (UPI) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk made two posts on X that appear to tease a new car or relaunch of an existing car for “10/7.”

Because of the teasers, Tesla stock rose by 4.72%, on pace for its largest one-day percentage gain in a little over a week, MarketWatch said.

Theories about what the teasers mean include that it could be the next-generation Roadster that Musk has been touting for years, or that Tesla is going to release a mass-market model.

Musk teased the next-gen Roadster in 2017 and 2018. He has since hyped the vehicle repeatedly and, in September, said on X that “the new Roadster is something special beyond a car.” He didn’t elaborate.

Tesla has been saying a cheaper mass-market car will be released this year. But Musk has said this lower-cost vehicle will be a stripped down Model Y, NBC reported.

While Tesla stock has risen recently, it took a hit earlier this year when Musk began his moves into politics, which soured some on Tesla.

In mid-September, Musk invested about $1 billion into Tesla, which made the market jump by about $30 per share.

For years, federal subsidies have played a critical role in accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles (EV). Most notably, President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act included a $7,500 tax credit designed to make EV purchases more affordable and spur demand. Under President Donald Trump, however, policy priorities have shifted. As part of the newly enacted “big, beautiful bill,” the EV tax credit was eliminated as of Sept. 30.

Let’s examine how this policy change could affect Tesla (TSLA -1.41%) and what it could mean for the company’s trajectory going forward.

Image source: Tesla.

Spoiler alert: Tesla crushed Q3 deliveries

Shortly after the legislation was signed into law, I predicted that eliminating the EV tax credit would actually provide Tesla with a short-term boost. The logic was straightforward: Consumers who had been undecided about purchasing an EV would likely accelerate their decisions in order to take advantage of the $7,500 credit before it expired.

According to consensus estimates from FactSet and Bloomberg, Wall Street expected Tesla’s third quarter vehicle deliveries to fall in the range of 439,800 to 447,600 units. In reality, Tesla delivered 497,099 cars during the quarter — absolutely shattering analyst expectations.

In short, the removal of the EV tax credit was far from a death knell for Tesla. Relying solely on subsidies to determine the health of Tesla’s business and its future roadmap is a narrow view of the company’s potential. As the discussion below will show, Tesla’s long-term investment case extends well beyond government incentives.

Tesla’s expanding vision: More than just cars

Investing in Tesla requires shareholders to be fully aligned with Elon Musk’s broader technological ambitions. At its core, Musk’s vision for Tesla is centered on artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and autonomous systems.

Consider Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot project. While still in early development, Optimus is designed as a scalable, general-purpose robot with the potential to augment human labor within factories — boosting productivity and delivering exponential cost savings over time. In fact, Musk himself has touted that Optimus could represent 80% of Tesla’s future value once scaled.

Equally transformative is Tesla’s vision to create a robotaxi network. The company aims to deploy a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles capable of generating recurring revenue streams that far exceed the economics of one-time vehicle sales. If successful, robotaxi could not only disrupt incumbents in the mobility market — such as Lyft, Uber Technologies, DoorDash, or Hertz — but it could also unlock a new business model for Tesla: A software-driven, high-margin service powered by its Full Self-Driving (FSD) platform.

On a deeper level, Tesla’s potential extends beyond physical products and into the intangible realm of machine intelligence. Musk has repeatedly hinted at closer integration between Tesla and his separate venture, xAI — which is developing a large language model (LLM) known as Grok to compete with OpenAI. Such a partnership could meaningfully enhance Tesla’s software stack, enabling a more intelligent and connected ecosystem that spans vehicles, robots, and AI-powered services.

Is Tesla stock a buy now?

The loss of the $7,500 EV subsidy may affect short-term affordability for certain buyer segments, but ultimately it does not fundamentally change Tesla’s long-term investment thesis.

That said, valuation deserves careful attention. As of Oct. 2, Tesla shares were trading near all-time highs. Recent momentum has been fueled in part by Musk’s $1 billion open-market purchase of Tesla stock, as well as traders positioning ahead of the Q3 delivery beat — which indeed materialized.

TSLA data by YCharts

For these reasons, I would be cautious about chasing Tesla at current levels. While projects like Optimus, the robotaxi network, and potential xAI synergies are exciting, none have yet generated material revenue or profit. Each remains highly speculative at this stage.

For now, investors may be better served monitoring Tesla’s execution on the AI front and considering entry points on pullbacks rather than buying into the stock at peak optimism.

After sliding sharply on Thursday and Friday, Tesla (TSLA -1.41%) is back in focus ahead of its next earnings report, scheduled for Oct. 22. With a combination of record quarterly deliveries, a sharp sell-off, and an earnings report on the horizon, it’s a good time to look closely at the growth stock. Is the pullback a buying opportunity?

The electric vehicle (EV) maker, which also sells batteries and energy-storage systems and is increasingly leaning into software and services with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver-assistance technology and its autonomous ride-sharing robotaxi operation, has some massive catalysts ahead. But it may have to endure a tough fourth quarter first, making the question of whether shares are a buy a difficult one. The stock’s high valuation makes the decision even harder.

With this backdrop in mind, here are four reasons investors might want to buy the stock and one important reason they may want to avoid it.

Image source: Getty Images.

A return to growth in its core automotive business

Tesla delivered about 497,100 vehicles in the third quarter, a new quarterly record and, importantly, a return to year-over-year growth of about 7% versus the same period last year. That reversal follows two straight quarters of declines: First-quarter 2025 deliveries fell 13% year over year to 336,681, and second-quarter 2025 deliveries slipped 13% to 384,122. Together, these figures frame Q3 not just as a huge sequential jump but also as a clear break in a tough 2025 trend.

Even though the rebound was helped by the expiration of a key $7,500 U.S. electric vehicle credit, it’s worth noting that third-quarter deliveries were far above analysts’ consensus forecast for only about 448,000 vehicles.

Energy is quietly becoming a substantial catalyst

Alongside vehicles, Tesla’s fast-growing energy storage business took another major step forward in Q3. Tesla deployed 12.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage in the third quarter, its highest on record and well above both the 9.6 GWh reported in the second quarter of 2025 and the 6.9 GWh posted in the third quarter of 2024.

This key segment is now generating substantial gross profit for the company and is likely to continue growing as a percentage of overall revenue.

Fading credits may sting, but product and pricing help

The $7,500 federal electric vehicle credit expired on Sept. 30 — a change that likely pulled some U.S. demand into Q3 and could weigh on Q4. But there are two offsets worth watching. First, Tesla’s sweeping post-COVID-19 price cuts have made its lineup far more accessible than a few years ago.

Second, the recently overhauled Model Y, which Tesla is calling Juniper, gives the company a timely hero product to market into the holidays. While these may not be enough to fully offset the loss of the electric vehicle incentive, they are key catalysts that can help the company begin building momentum going into 2026.

A more affordable model is coming

More importantly, the company has a more affordable model coming soon. Indeed, Tesla said in its second-quarter update that it produced its first units of the new model in June, with volume production planned before the year ends. While comments from Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the company’s second-quarter earnings call suggest this may simply be a cheaper version of the new Model Y, it’s still worth getting excited about. A lower-priced car could help offset the loss of the now-expired federal credit.

If the company releases a meaningfully lower-priced model with a compelling range and features, the addition could significantly expand Tesla’s addressable market next year.

A new, higher-margin revenue stream

And don’t forget what is probably Tesla‘s most important catalyst: a recently launched limited robotaxi pilot program in Austin. It is early for the autonomous ride-sharing program, and a cautious rollout and regulatory constraints mean the near-term financial impact is likely small, but this could morph into a major profit stream for Tesla over time.

If the service scales and more owners opt into Full Self-Driving (Supervised), software and services could grow as a share of revenue. This will likely be a positive for margins and valuation over time. Additionally, growing buzz about robotaxi and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software could help lure in new Tesla buyers, helping accelerate sales growth.

The reason not to buy? Valuation still leaves little room for error

Even after the sell-off, the stock trades at more than 250 times earnings as of this writing. A price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio like this makes the S&P 500‘s P/E of about 26 look cheap — and it leaves almost no room for error. The valuation arguably already prices in substantial progress on autonomy, software monetization, and lower-priced vehicles while also expecting energy to keep compounding. Ultimately, shares could take a beating if Tesla drops the ball in any way.

Despite the company’s powerful catalysts, the bear case (valuation) is simpler and, for now, heavy enough to matter. Considering all these bullish reasons to buy shares in the context of the stock’s high valuation, investors should proceed with caution. For investors convinced by Tesla’s long-term roadmap, a small position could make sense with the expectation of volatility and the discipline to add only if shares retreat further. Everyone else may prefer to wait for a potential further decline in the share price or for fundamentals to catch up.

Tesla (TSLA -1.42%) investors should prepare for a rocky 2026. At least that’s what certain experts think. “Next year could be a pretty dreadful year for EVs in this country,” warns Adam Jonas, an analyst for Morgan Stanley. Tesla is already struggling with sluggish sales growth. But as we’ll see, meager sales growth could get even worse starting this week.

Expect EV demand to drop sharply starting this week

Why is Adam Jonas so bearish on EVs in 2026? Last month, tax credits for EV buyers were eliminated. That essentially adds up to $7,500 to the price tag of most EV purchases. Don’t underestimate the upcoming impact. While more consumers are interested in an EV for their next vehicle purchase, these consumers are also increasingly cost conscious. According to Eric Bradlow, an expert on EV demand at The Wharton School, “consumers considering an EV or hybrid are more pragmatic and cost-conscious than current EV owners.”

Image source: Getty Images.

Due to social pushback against its mercurial CEO, Elon Musk, as well as a relatively stale product lineup, Tesla is already struggling to maintain positive sales growth. Revenue is expected to fall by nearly 5% this fiscal year. Next year, however, sales are expected to grow by nearly 20%. If experts like Eric Bradlow and Adam Jonas are correct, however, Tesla’s actual results in 2026 could disappoint.

Investors should be prepared for lumpy sales results. Prospective EV buyers may have accelerated their purchase plans in order to take advantage of tax incentives before they expired in September. This could make next quarter’s results look promising. But investors should expect a steep drop-off in sales in the quarters to follow.

There are a whirlwind of things happening around Tesla (TSLA -1.41%) right now, both good and bad. On the one hand, the company is dealing with a talent exodus with multiple executives leaving, consumer backlash at CEO Elon Musk’s political antics, declining global sales, and an aging vehicle lineup, just to name a few.

On the other hand, the company believes it can be the most valuable company in the world as it transitions from vehicle production to a company based on artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and driverless vehicles. The question remains: Where will Tesla’s stock trade during all of this madness?

Falling behind?

One of the biggest developments for Tesla investors over the summer happened in Austin, Texas, where the company launched its robotaxi pilot. However, three months into its robotaxi pilot with a small number of Model Ys operating, it still requires a safety driver just in case, and it still only operates with invite-only passengers.

Image source: Tesla.

Sure, it was a step forward after the company had long promised such a service, but Tesla is still behind its primary rival, Waymo, which is moving into new cities and doesn’t require a safety driver to supervise its driverless vehicle.

While the slower and smaller initial test may have made investors cautious, Musk remains ambitious. During Tesla’s July 23 earnings call, he noted that the autonomous ride-hailing service would reach across most of the country and “probably” address half the U.S. population by the end of 2025 — lofty targets, to be sure.

No small matter

Make no mistake, this is a huge development for investors and the stakes are high. Tesla’s slow rollout has some onlookers pumping the brakes.

“It’s an acknowledgment that their software isn’t as mature as they thought it was and they’re going to need more time with a safety driver,” said Carnegie Mellon professor Philip Koopman, an expert in autonomous vehicle safety, according to Automotive News. “That’s OK for everyone except the people who invested thinking there’d be a million of these cars on the road by the end of the year,” he said. 

Investors looking for a silver lining might have to squint to see it more clearly, but it’s there. One reason Tesla remains a serious threat to its rivals such as Waymo is because once the autonomous technology and robotaxi become fully autonomous, the automaker can easily produce tons of vehicles from its factories in California and Texas.

Long term, Tesla’s gigafactory production is an advantage. But the company also has a cost advantage over its rivals as it only uses cameras for its self-driving technology, rather than more expensive sensors such as radar and lidar.

Investors also have to keep in mind Tesla may be behind at the moment, but at the same time could make progress faster than its competitors. In fact, if Tesla can change to no safety driver in the next 12 months, that’ll be faster than any other robotaxi company that’s accomplished the feat. For context, Waymo tested for years with safety drivers before going fully autonomous, but that was back in 2020.

What it all means

Tesla’s progress with autonomous vehicles has been slower than desired, but investors should focus on if the company can do it without sensors, and do it effectively. At this point doing it right is much more valuable than doing it faster — that battle may already be over. That said, Tesla has seemingly gone all-in on its future transition from only producing vehicles to becoming an AI, robotics, and robotaxi service company, which could be lucrative if it’s all achieved.

Until then, investors are going to need plenty of patience, especially considering the third quarter is likely to be strong — remember the end of the $7,500 tax credit pulled demand into the third quarter. That should be followed by several rather bumpy quarters for not only Tesla but the broader electric vehicle industry.

About two months ago, my cousin Guillermo happily ventured from picturesque Cuernavaca, Mexico, to 95-degree Southern California.

He took his wife and two young kids to Disneyland, Universal Studios, the zoo, the beach and a Dodger game over a week span and then gleefully returned home. He spent about $6,000 for what he hoped was a lifetime of stories and memories.

His actions were pretty normal for a tourist though his timing was not.

Tourism to Los Angeles and California, in general, has been down this summer, representing a blow to one of the state’s biggest industries.

Theories as to why people aren’t visiting were explored this past week by my colleague Cerys Davis.

Davis spoke with experts and provided the scoop. Let’s take a look at what she wrote.

What the numbers say

International tourist arrivals to the state fell by 8% in the three months through August, according to data released Monday from Visit California. That is more than 170,000 fewer global tourists than last year. This is critical because international tourists spend up to eight times more per visit than domestic tourists.

Of all the state’s international travelers, arrivals from Canada fell the most (32%) in the three summer months.

Empty landmarks

On Hollywood Boulevard, there are fewer tourists, and the ones who show up are spending less, said Salim Osman, who works for Ride Like A Star, an exotic car company that rents to visitors looking to take a luxury vehicle for a spin and snap the quintessential L.A. selfie.

This summer, he said foot traffic dropped by nearly 50%.

“It used to be shoulder to shoulder out here,” he said, looking along the boulevard, normally teeming with tourists.

Business has been slow around the TCL Chinese Theatre, where visitors place their hands into the concrete hand prints of celebrities like Kristen Stewart and Denzel Washington.

There were fewer people to hop onto sightseeing buses, check out Madame Tussauds wax museum and snap impromptu photos with patrolling characters such as Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse. Souvenir shop operators nearby say they have also had to increase the prices of many of their memorabilia because of tariffs and a decline in sales.

Many of the state’s most prominent attractions are also experiencing dry spells. Yosemite National Park reported a decrease of up to 50% in bookings ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

Theories as to what’s keeping tourists away

The region’s economy and image suffered significant setbacks this year.

Shocking images of the destructive Eaton and Palisades fires in January, followed by the immigration crackdown in June, made global news and repelled visitors like friends of Australian tourists Geoffrey and Tennille Mutton, who didn’t accompany the couple to California this summer.

“A lot of people have had a changed view of America,” Geoffrey said as his family enjoyed Ben & Jerry’s ice cream outside of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. “They don’t want to come here and support this place.”

Meanwhile, President Trump’s tariff policies and other geopolitical posturing have convinced many international tourists to avoid America, particularly Canadians, said Palm Springs Mayor Ron deHarte.

“We’ve hurt our Canadian friends with actions that the administration has taken. It’s understandable,” he said. “We don’t know how long they won’t want to travel to the states, but we’re hopeful that it is short-term.”

President Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st state and his decision to hit Canada with tariffs have not endeared him to Canadian travelers. Meanwhile, media overseas have been bombarded with stories of capricious denials and detentions at U.S. border crossings.

Visitors from China, India, Germany and Australia also avoided the state, according to the latest data. That has resulted in a dip in traffic at most Los Angeles area airports. Cynthia Guidry, director of Long Beach Airport, said reduced airline schedules, economic pressures and rising costs also hurt airport traffic.

Viva Mexico (tourists)!

Despite the southern border lockdown and the widespread immigration raids, Mexicans were a surprising exception to the tourism slump. Arrivals from our southern neighbor were up about 5% over the last three months from 2024.

I asked my cousin, Guillermo, about his travel motivations.

He noted his desire to see family but also to visit many of Southern California’s jewels. He added that planning for this trip started a year earlier too.

Asked if he’d reconsider visiting California in the future, he delivered a timeless response.

“If there’s a deal, I’ll go.”

For more, check out the full story here.

The week’s biggest stories

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Explosion at Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery

Crimes, courts and policing

Media and tech news

Entertainment news

Unexpected deaths

More big stories

This week’s must-reads

More great reads

For your weekend

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

When a new president enters office, it’s not uncommon for changes to take place, either through the signing of bills into law or via executive orders. Since President Donald Trump was inaugurated a little over eight months ago, we’ve witnessed a slew of adjustments made to Social Security, as well as the passage of his flagship tax and spending law, the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

While Trump’s big, beautiful bill introduced a number of tax breaks for select groups, including a higher standard tax deduction for eligible seniors from 2025 through 2028, and partial deductions for tips and overtime pay for eligible workers during the same four-year timeline, it also removed some important benefits.

President Trump delivering his State of the Union address. Image source: Official White House Photo.

Specifically, Donald Trump’s law changes the fortunes of the electric-vehicle (EV) industry and its leading pure-play manufacturers, which includes Tesla (TSLA 0.61%), Rivian Automotive (RIVN -2.15%), and Lucid Group (LCID 0.56%), as of today, Sept. 30.

EV makers bid adieu to an important dangling carrot

Among the laundry list of tax and credit adjustments in the president’s big, beautiful bill is a newly shortened timeline that ends the $7,500 tax credit consumers received when purchasing a qualifying new EV or plug-in hybrid, as well as the $4,000 credit when buying a used EV. This EV credit was available to new vans, SUVs, and trucks priced below a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $80,000, as well as new sedans with an MSRP of no more than $55,000.

Though this credit (officially known as the Clean Vehicle Credit) was initially slated to end in 2032, based on the Inflation Reduction Act, Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill brings this new EV purchase credit to an end today, Sept. 30. Qualifying new vehicles purchased after today will no longer be eligible for the $7,500 credit.

This EV credit applied to a significant percentage of the vehicles Tesla sells, including its Model 3 Sedan, all-wheel drive Model X SUV, single and dual motor Cybertruck, and multiple variants of the Model Y SUV. While Rivian’s and Lucid’s EVs are generally priced above the MSRP range where tax credits end, both companies had been angling leases of upcoming models as a way to take advantage of the $7,500 EV credit.

This EV credit was akin to a dangling carrot that allowed pure-play electric-vehicle manufacturers to be more price-competitive with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Undercutting traditional ICE vehicles on price is viewed as a borderline necessity with EV charging infrastructure still somewhat lacking on a nationwide basis.

Without this upfront cost advantage, it’s likely that future buyers will opt for traditional gas- and diesel-powered vehicles due to the availability of ICE fueling infrastructure and opportunity cost. Whereas it takes just a few minutes to refuel an ICE vehicle, it can take an hour to a full day, depending on the type of charger used, to juice up an EV.

Image source: Tesla.

But wait — there’s more bad news

However, ending this lucrative tax credit that incentivized the purchase of EVs isn’t the only way Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill is disrupting pure-play EV manufacturers.

When the president signed his flagship tax and spending bill into law on July 4, 2025, it put an end to corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) fines, as well as retroactively eliminated fines for 2022 model years and all subsequent years.

CAFE regulations represent the standard of how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel. These figures, which are set by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, are designed to promote more fuel-efficient vehicles over time and lessen the reliance on fossil fuels. Automakers that failed to meet these standards were subject to fines. With CAFE civil penalties removed, courtesy of Trump’s law, there’s no longer any financial incentive for automakers to meet sky-high mile-per-gallon targets.

This is almost certain to have an adverse impact on the ability of Tesla, Rivian Automotive, and Lucid Group to generate profits.

Government agencies provide automotive regulatory credits to these pure-play EV manufacturers, which sell these tax credits to legacy automakers that are short of compliance targets. For Tesla especially, selling these tax credits plays a key role in its profitability. Without regulatory credits, Elon Musk’s company would have reported a pre-tax loss during the first quarter of 2025.

With the teeth behind CAFE regulations removed by the big, beautiful bill, the market for automotive regulatory credits in the U.S. is going to be severely depressed. It has the potential to expose the fact that Wall Street’s EV darling, Tesla, has been consistently generating more than half of its pre-tax income from unsustainable and/or non-innovative sources, such as selling automotive regulatory credits and earning interest income on its cash.

It’ll also minimize regulatory tax credit revenue for Rivian and Lucid. Whereas Tesla has at least been profitable on a recurring basis for five consecutive years (with the help of automotive regulatory credits), Rivian and Lucid continue to lose money hand over fist as they ramp up operations and attempt to carve out their own unique niches in the automotive marketplace. Despite substantial cash piles for both companies and brand-name financial backing, long-term success is far from a guarantee.

Though I wouldn’t go so far as to say Donald Trump drove a dagger through the heart of the EV industry, his actions are almost certain to thin the herd and make it considerably more difficult for pure-play electric-vehicle makers to compete with traditional ICE vehicles.

A well thought-out interior, innovative tech and an impressive long range for an EV are just a few of the features that scooped the Renault Scenic The Sun’s Family Car of the Year award.

But could it cut the mustard (French or British) with an active family and hard-to-impress teenagers putting it through its paces?

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Here’s the lowdown on my extended Test.

Driving Experience

Over the months I had the Scenic on test, the lasting impression was that it certainly lives up to the name tag. It’s a serene drive across all types of terrain.

From a half-term trip to the West Country where we blasted down the M4 and M5 without the need for a pit stop, to a longer trek to the tip of Cornwall, we pushed the Scenic to the limit in terms of distance, weight and durability. 

As a result, it rose to the challenge, negating any fears that EVs can’t be the versatile plug-ins that so many British families are looking for.

While the acceleration is good, with a 0-62mph of 7.9 seconds, it won’t win any drag races. 

On motorways, it sits well at 70mph, with sound thrust on overtakes and lane changes. The brakes are solid and, around town, the ride held firm over pot-holed roads.

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There’s a drive mode for every whim. Eco mode naturally slows the car to optimise battery performance, capping speed and dialling down in-car features. 

All hail to its minimalist ways, which were particularly effective during a major motorway diversion.

A slightly longer route meant I might have been looking at an additional charging stop.

But I arrived home with 20 miles to spare and no range anxiety – job done!

For less frugal days, Comfort was the mid-range setting that became my default.

Sport provides that extra bit of power when required, and Perso is for those who want (and have the time) to create their own setup.

Battery Range

We’ve been treated to the Iconic Long Range 220 HP version, meaning that, in theory and on a full charge it can reach a range of 369 miles. This is pretty decent and, in my experience of EVs, gives it competitive appeal.

A larger battery size (87 kWh versus the standard model’s 60 kWH) does, however, come at an £8,000 price uptick, so one to factor into purchase budgets.

The Scenic’s output matched up well to the claimed range. In the colder months, it’s full charge only hit the 330 miles mark, but this is acceptable and more than adequate.

Similarly, on mid to longer journeys, it kept to the indicated range when driven in the 50-60mph territory. 

Any closer to 70mph and this began to drop off, but only as
expected, so not a point to fret over.

Cool Tech

Want suave design vibes? You got it. The tech was a tantalising teen dream. Sounds by French legendary electro-pop guru Jean-Michel Jarre and a rear-view mirror that can run as a video screen were the order of the day.

Throw in the Solarbay panoramic glass roof, which can darken or lighten on demand, and the awesome AC in the back and front sections of the cabin to dial up the chill factor, and we beat the heatwaves.

With the 12” multimedia touchscreen (portrait in shape so it feels like a large phone) and the 12-speaker Harman Kardon sound system to boot, me and my gang were spoiled.

Family Friendly Features

As passengers in the back, my teens were impressed with the arm rest that keeps on giving. It unfolds to offer drinks holders, USB ports and a smart phone/tablet holder.

The boot area also had a surprise in-store. Prise up the easy-to-lift floor mat and you discover a whole new storage section. Excellent for boots in the winter, wetsuits in the summer and the dog kit whatever the season.

The Rivals

Renault is pitching the Scenic E-Tech into a cluster of new mid-sized EVs that have launched in the last year or so. 

Key rivals for the family-friendly vote come from the Kia EV3, Ford Explorer, Volkswagen ID.5 and Skoda Enyaq. All offer sleek designs and impressive cabin features, which the Scenic stands up well to. 

The Tesla Model Y is also in this herd of contenders, but Elon’s recent political distractions has damaged his appeal to UK buyers.

Final Verdict

Making the switch to an EV might not yet be the right choice for regular families in the UK, but it is one that will start to become more familiar. 

With an on-the-road price of just over £45,000, the Renault Scenic E-Tech could be considered a relatively expensive option, but it is the full package.

It’s therefore not difficult to see why it was also crowned European Car of the Year 2024. 

Winning these accolades from experienced car reviewers is one thing, but surviving a few months with my clan is another. 

The Scenic stepped up to the mark here too, so add that to its trophy cabinet.

Renault Scenic E-Tech Iconic Long Range – key facts

Here’s everything you need to know about The Sun’s Family Car of the Year:

• Price: £45,495
• Acceleration: 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds
• Battery: 87 kWh
• Top Speed: 105 mph
• Power: 220hp
• Range: 369 WLTP

One of the joys of living in California is that you’re never too far away from a great meal.

And the variety of Mexican and Salvadoran cuisine throughout the Golden State is unsurpassed.

Once again, our friends on the LA Times Food team have released a well-researched and delicious list to confirm California’s status as a national food mecca.

Critic Bill Addison spent more than a year traveling throughout the state, tasting and compiling selections for the 101 Best Restaurants in California guide.

In his latest article, he’s highlighted 15 of the best Mexican and Salvadoran spots throughout the Golden State, highlighting popular haunts and hidden gems.

Look, this doesn’t have to be a tacos-versus-pupusas debate (sorry, Brad Pitt is correct). We can enjoy both and other plates on this list.

Here’s a few recommendations from Addison’s guide.

(Bill Addison/Los Angeles Times)

El Molino Central (Sonoma)

A molino is the specific mill used to grind nixtamalized corn into masa, which has been the focus of Karen Taylor’s businesses for decades.

In 1991, Taylor started Primavera, a Bay Area wholesale operation built around tamales and tortillas, and a name under which she sells life-giving chilaquiles for breakfast on Saturday mornings at San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza farmers market.

Nearly 20 years later, she translated what she’s learned about fresh masa into a tiny restaurant in the Boyes Hot Springs section of Sonoma County.

A portion of the menu flows with the seasons: in the summer, light-handed sopes filled with chicken tinga and chile rellenos filled with epazote-scented creamed corn arrive; winter is for butternut squash and caramelized onion enchiladas; and spring brings lamb barbacoa tacos over thick, fragrant tortillas.

Among perennials, look for the chicken tamale steamed in banana leaves and covered in chef Zoraida Juarez’s mother’s recipe for mole — hers is the color of red clay, hitting the palate sweet before its many toasted spices and chiles slowly reveal their flavors.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Popoca (Oakland)

At the most visionary Salvadoran restaurant in California, Anthony Salguero refashions his culture’s version of the beverage chicha, fermented with corn and pineapple, into a sticky, intricately sour-sweet glaze for grilled and braised chicken.

He shaves cured, smoked egg yolk over herbed guacamole as a play on the boiled eggs that often accompany Salvadoran-style guac. He serves a half Dungeness crab with tools to extract the meat and a side of alguashte, an earthy seasoning of toasted pepitas, to accentuate the crab’s sweetness.

Nicaraguan chancho con yuca, a slow-cooked pork stew, is the inspiration for a walloping pork chop marinated in achiote, grilled above glowing almond logs and poised at an angle, like a rakishly worn hat, over braised yuca and red cabbage.

Salguero ran the eatery Popoca as a pandemic-era pop-up in Oakland before finding a more permanent home (brick walls, pale wood floors, shadowed lighting) in the city’s downtown. While he focuses on reimagining the traditions and possibilities of Salvadoran cooking, he doesn’t abandon El Salvador’s national dish: The pupusas are exceptional, made from several versions of masa using corn he buys from Mexico City-based Tamoa.

(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)

Barbacoa Ramirez (Arleta)

Lamb barbacoa — when cooked properly for hours to buttery-ropy tenderness — is such a painstaking art that most practitioners in Southern California sell it only on the weekends.

In the Los Angeles area, conversations around sublime lamb barbacoa should start up in the north San Fernando Valley, at the stand that Gonzalo Ramirez sets up on Saturday and Sunday mornings near the Arleta DMV. You’ll see him and his family wearing red T-shirts that say “Atotonilco El Grande Hidalgo” to honor their hometown in central-eastern Mexico.

Ramirez tends and butchers lambs in the Central Valley. The meat slow-cooks in a pit overnight and, cradled in plush made-to-order tortillas, the tacos come in three forms: smoky, molten-textured barbacoa barely hinting of garlic; a pancita variation stained with chiles that goes fast; and incredible moronga, a nubbly, herbaceous sausage made with lamb’s blood.

Join the line (if it’s long, someone usually hands out samples to encourage patience) and then find a place at the communal outdoor table. Worried that options might run out, Addison said he tends to arrive before 9 a.m., an hour when Ramirez’s rare craftsmanship often inspires a mood where people sit quietly, holding their tacos as something sacred.

The week’s biggest stories

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Trump administration, policies and reactions

Crime, courts and policing

Transportation and infrastructure

More big stories

This week’s must-reads

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For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by James Anthony)

Going out

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L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern

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