STREET MAUL$ TESLA

Skeptics hit Musk

Tesla shares fell nearly 6% Thursday as a lukewarm investor reception to Elon Musk’s “Master Plan 3” presentation added a fresh headache for the electricvehicle maker.

Musk (inset) and other execs teased a cheaper “nextgen” electric vehicle during Wednesday’s “in- vestor day” event at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas — but the announcement was light on details about the car’s performance specs, vehicle models or potential release date.

Investor skepticism over the event contributed to a $37 billion to $43 billion plunge in Tesla’s market value Thursday. Shares of the world’s top EV maker fell to $190.90, down $11.87.

“I’d love to really show you what I mean and unveil the next-gen car, but you’re going to have to trust me on that until a later date,” Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen said, according to Bloomberg. “We’ll always be delivering exciting, compelling and desirable vehicles, as we always have.”

When pressed for more details, Musk said Tesla would eventually hold a “proper sort of product event” about the highly anticipated launch.

The stock plunge occurred even as Tesla reiterated a plan to annually manufacture 20 million vehicles by 2030.

Executives also confirmed plans to build a new production plan in Monterrey, Mexico, and spoke extensively about the company’s other initiatives, including a global shift toward sustainable energy and advances in artificial-intelligence technology.

The Tesla event “was heavy on discussion relative to clean-energy transition and on the company’s approach to designing and developing vehicles generally, but short on specifics or measurable metrics to track its progress,” JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman said in a client note.

Tesla also addressed concerns about its business in China and whether its key Shanghai production plant could be impacted by rising friction between Washington and Beijing.

This week, Musk was reprimanded by China’s Global Times, a state-run media outlet that’s a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party.

Musk had tweeted about the US Energy Department’s report that a lab leak in China was the mostly likely explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins.