It is hard to feel too sorry for Elon Musk. A few days ago he was ranked as No 2 in the global rich list published by Forbes magazine, just behind Bernard Arnault and family, who control the French luxury empire LVMH. Now, while he is still worth nearly $200bn, thanks to the fall in the value of his shareholding in Tesla he has been pipped by Jeff Bezos at Amazon, and is down to No 3.

There are two stories here. One is what is happening to Tesla. The other is what is happening to the transition to electric cars more generally, and in particular the rise of China as the dominant producer of them.

For Tesla, the first quarter of this year has been a disaster. Sales fell sharply despite price cuts, and its share price declined by more than 5 per cent to push it down by one third so far........

© iNews