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As the deadline approaches for Tesla investors to vote their shares for or against Elon Musk’s $46 billion pay package, the electric vehicle maker is pulling out all the stops to increase engagement.
The most recent push comes in the form of a guided tour of Tesla’s Austin, Texas, factory led by Musk and other executives, including chief of design Franz von Holzhausen. The factory is where the company produces some of its best-selling Model Y cars — which, along with the Model 3, accounted for 96% of sales last year — and the Cybertruck electric pickup.
Shareholders who vote their shares and submit proof of ownership on Tesla’s website before June 8 will be eligible for the tour. Fifteen shareholders will be chosen to participate in the tour, which is scheduled for June 12. Tesla’s annual meeting of shareholders is scheduled for June 13.
The company also makes clear that shareholders or beneficial owners will only qualify if they owned stock before the end of business on April 15. Additionally, they shouldn’t disclose how they voted or what they voted on, just proof that they cast their ballot.
Tesla shareholders will decide next month whether to approve Musk’s pay package, which a judge struck down in January and was valued — at the time — at $56 billion, making it the largest executive compensation package in history. The pay package, which was approved by investors in 2018, has been put up for re-approval next month, and Tesla has asked shareholders to support it.
Tesla argues that the plan was valid, saying that 73% of shareholders approved the 2018 pay package, according to a proxy statement filed Wednesday. Musk — whose net worth is $194.9 billion, according to Forbes — has not been paid for “any of his work for Tesla” since 2018, according to the Austin, Texas-based company. He has served as CEO since 2008.
Tesla, which usually avoids heavy spending on advertisements and recently laid off its marketing team, has been buying promoted posts on X, formerly Twitter, and launched a website to encourage voting in favor of the pay package. Musk has also been active on X, which he purchased in 2022, advocating for investors to get involved, while board chairman Robyn Denholm has been courting institutional investors.
The automaker has also turned to factory tours to boost sales abroad. Chinese consumers who take delivery of their cars between May 25 and June 30 will be eligible to win a tour of Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. Tesla said it will cover plane tickets, transportation costs, insurance, and offer 10,000 kilometers in free milage on its Supercharger network.
Just days earlier, Tesla began advertising a free two-day, one-night trip for two to visit its gigafactory in Shanghai. All consumers need to do is take a test drive in a Chinese Tesla store before June 30.
Tesla sold 62,167 China-made cars in April, down 18% compared to the same time in 2023, according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association earlier this month. Sales were down 30% from March, when Tesla sold 89,064 China-made EVs.