Musk Prevails in Tesla Shareholder Vote

Tesla Inc. shareholders soundly rejected a move yesterday by activist investors to dump three incumbent directors and strip CEO Elon Musk of his chairmanship role.

Tesla says a “super-majority” of stockholders rebuffed a proposal to install a new chairman. Shareholders also voted by a “wide margin” to retain board members Antonio Gracias, James Murdock and Elon’s brother Kimbal Musk, according to the company. Specifics about the tally will be released later.

Separately, Musk told the company’s annual meeting that it is “quite likely” that Tesla’s output of Model 3 electric sedans will reach 5,000 units per week by the end of June. He says the company, which has been struggling for months to eliminate production bottlenecks, has increased its weekly output capacity from 2,500 units to 3,500 units since the end of April.

But those figures are based on extrapolating short-lived “burst build” output rates. Analysts note that Tesla hasn’t yet shown it can sustain the greater production rates it need to support the sales volume and cash flow it needs to fund other product programs and delivery sustained profitability.