Shareholder support for Elon Musk’s massive new payday was a bit of a surprise to many on the trading floor. Yet, it was still a huge drop from just seven years ago.
This year only around 75% of Tesla shareholders voted to approve the CEO’s new compensation plan, a sharp drop from the nearly 90% approval in 2018.
That number gets worse when you remove top executives and board members from the count. Only 66.9% of non-affiliated investors backed the deal, down from 73% in the last vote, based on figures from Columbia Threadneedle’s Andrew Droste.
The company itself reported the higher 75% figure after including votes from people like Elon, who owns about 15% of Tesla’s stock and was allowed to vote.
This vote happened Thursday during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, and it came right after a rocky stretch for both Elon and the company. In just six months, vehicle sales have slowed, and brand value has taken a hit.
The dip was blamed in part on Elon’s growing involvement with Donald Trump’s White House, where he’s been advising on efforts to slash the federal government. That shift didn’t land well with some investors. It’s also stirred a political storm that clearly bled into the boardroom.
Board backs $1T plan while top advisers say no
Elon’s new pay plan could eventually hand him about $1 trillion in Tesla stock over the next decade. That figure only becomes reality if the company hits a long list of performance targets.
The board rolled out the proposal last September and fully endorsed it. But two major advisory firms, ISS and Glass Lewis, recommended that shareholders vote it down.
The plan includes 12 tranches of stock awards, each tied to specific goals. To unlock the first batch, Tesla must hit a $2 trillion valuation, which is roughly $500 billion above its current market cap. But the targets aren’t just about stock price. Elon also has to meet some operational goals, unless certain “covered events” kick in; those give him a shortcut to collect even if some of the results fall short.
The vote came down to risk. As Andrew, who leads corporate governance at Columbia Threadneedle, put it, “Most investors recognize that Tesla and Elon Musk are inextricably linked,” and said shareholders were “unwilling to risk his potential departure by allowing this vote to fail.”
That pressure to keep Elon close outweighed concerns from critics, at least enough to pass the deal, but just barely.
Even with the resistance, Elon could still walk away with more than $50 billion if he hits just a few of the more reachable goals. That makes it one of the largest pay packages ever seen, even as Tesla’s fundamentals get shakier.
Energy business sees gains as vehicle sales slow
While Elon was securing his paycheck, Tesla’s energy division quietly delivered a record-setting quarter. In Q3, the company deployed 12.5 GWh of battery storage systems, a massive 81% increase year-over-year.
That growth came from rising demand for Megapacks used in utilities and Powerwalls installed in homes. The energy side of the business pulled in $3.4 billion in revenue, up 27% from the same time last year, and posted a 31% gross margin, beating the car business.
Michael Snyder, Tesla’s VP of energy and charging, said the company got “very strong positive customer feedback” for its new Megablock platform, which launched at the RE+ trade show in Las Vegas.
The first shipments will head out of Houston next year, while Elon teased the upcoming Megapack 4, hinting at bigger storage capacity for the next version.
Tesla’s energy division is starting to matter more. As tariffs rise, EV tax credits expire, and competition from other automakers heats up, vehicle sales have taken a hit. That’s opened the door for battery storage systems to step up.
Tesla is now seeing strong demand from data centers, utility companies, and businesses looking for reliable and renewable backup power, even as the company’s automotive margins shrink.
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