In many ways, these have been tough days for Tesla. Falling sales. Squeezed profit margins. Proposed changes in US government policy that could cost the company billions.

Sales of Tesla cars have nosedived across some of the EV manufacturer’s most valuable European markets—and experts are blaming Elon Musk. Sales in Germany, where Tesla has a factory, dropped a staggering 59 percent in January compared to the same month last year,

Musk, who also runs SpaceX and a number of other companies, has been known to make big often exaggerated promises. For example, he once called the Hyperloop, which was never built, the "fifth mode of transport" and famously promised to take Tesla private in a Twitter post, saying he had secured financing that he didn't have.