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The Tesla Motors stock price dropped 2.20% by late afternoon today (Friday) after Tesla announced 90,000 Model S sedans will be recalled due to seat belt issues.
The problem with the seat belt stems from an incident in early November reported in Europe. According to CNBC, a seat belt broke in the front passenger seat of a Model S when the passenger turned to talk to individuals in the rear seat.
The Tesla recall news followed an announcement earlier in the day that authorities in Hong Kong declared Tesla's auto-driving feature illegal. Officials stated that Tesla Motors Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) did not go through the city's regulatory process, according to news outlet Quartz.
Issues like this show just how volatile the Tesla Motors stock price can be. News affects the Tesla Motors stock price more than many other stocks, and today's news had the stock down more than 2%.
But not all the news was bad for Tesla investors today. CEO Elon Musk did provide optimism for Tesla's revenue growth last night (Thursday) despite the negative Tesla news today.
In a series of tweets, Musk stated he was looking for "hardcore software engineers" for the autopilot software team to "achieve generalized full autonomy."
Musk hiring more engineers is a great sign that Tesla will continue to increase its product line, which will in turn increase the revenue of the company. This also shows that Musk believes in the potential of Tesla's automated vehicles.
While many investors panicked today and sent TSLA stock lower, the current issues are not a death sentence for the Tesla stock price...
Tesla is a leading innovator in the auto industry, and Money Morning Technical Trading Specialist D.R. Barton said in October that Tesla is "head and shoulders ahead in the electric car front." With worldwide revenue from electric vehicles forecast to bring in $488.54 billion by 2030, there's still a lot of reasons to like Tesla stock.
And that's not the only reason we're bullish on the Tesla Motors stock price long term. Behind Musk, Tesla has become much more than just a car company this year...
Jack Delaney is an associate editor for Money Morning. You can follow him on Twitter and follow Money Morning on Facebook.