Hitting the Brakes: Shareholders Heighten Pressure on Tesla and Toyota
July 11, 2025
Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla is facing mounting pressure from shareholders on multiple fronts, while fellow automaker giant Toyota has been excluded by Storebrand Asset Management over lobbying concerns.
SHARE (the Shareholder Association for Research & Education) has this week coordinated a group of Tesla shareholders representing more than U$1.5 trillion in AUM in sending a letter to Tesla’s Board of Directors which demanded that company announce the date of its next AGM.
Meanwhile, Norway’s largest private asset manager Storebrand earlier this week announced it had excluded Toyota Motor Corporation from investment in Q2 2025. The asset manager said this was because of the company “fail[ing] to reform its practice of actively lobbying against climate regulations and policies”.
Tesla has announced its 2025 AGM will take place on November 6, almost four months after the latest the company was supposed to hold its annual shareholder meeting under local laws.
Under Texas law, where Tesla is headquartered, the company is expected to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting within thirteen months of its last meeting. Tesla’s 2024 AGM took place on June 13 meaning the 2025 AGM should have taken place by July 13 this year.
The announcement of the early November AGM was issued late on July 9 and only became visible to the US Securities and Exchange Commission website on the morning of July 10, just days before the latest date the meeting was supposed to have taken place.
Hours before Tesla announced the date of its AGM, a group of Tesla shareholders representing more than U$1.5 trillion in AUM had published a letter sent to company’s Board of Directors this week calling for the date of it next shareholder meeting to be announced.
The letter said that Tesla’s lack of transparency over the date of its annual shareholders’ meeting “raises serious concerns about the company’s respect for shareholder rights”.
“An annual meeting provides shareholders with the opportunity to hear directly from the board about these concerns, and to vote for or against directors, the board’s approach to executive compensation, and other matters of material importance,” the letter read. “As fiduciaries, we believe strong corporate governance and responsive board oversight are foundational to long-term company success. Tesla’s ongoing silence on the AGM is cause for concern.”
The letter was signed by investors including Akademiker Pension, Ethos Foundation, the New York City Comptroller, University Pension Plan and Velliv.
“When Tesla is already under scrutiny for troubling governance practices and declining company performance, the Board’s lack of engagement with shareholders is a red flag,” said Kevin Thomas, CEO of SHARE. “Tesla investors should not be treated as an afterthought.”
SHARE’s letter pointed to three cases of “growing investor scrutiny” faced by Tesla which paints the 2025 AGM’s delay in a “particularly troubling” light.
This included a group of institutional shareholders with 7.9 million shares writing to the Tesla board raising concerns about compensation, succession planning, outside board commitments and director independence in May, which was reported by Minerva Analytics.
The group of pensions fund investors at Tesla had sent a letter to the Chair of the company’s board demanding that CEO Elon Musk work at least 40 hours per week before any new compensation plan is approved. It was signed by 12 institutional investors, including Akademiker Pension, AP Pension, Storebrand and the New York City Comptroller, collectively representing U$950 billion in AUM.
SHARE additionally cited a coalition of seven US state treasurers, as well as other treasurers, that collectively overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in Tesla calling on the company to strengthen board accountability and improve transparency to shareholders.
SHARE also highlighted criticism of Musk’s impact on Tesla’s stock, which fell by 7.6% at the start of trading this week following his unveiling a new US political party as part of his public falling out with President Donald Trump. Tesla shares have dropped 38% since reaching an all time high in December 2024.
Separately, other Tesla shareholders have called on the board to curb the activities of Elon Musk following the recent launch of his new political party. The day after Musk formed the America Party investment firm Azoria Partners, which is spearheaded by noted Trump supporter James Fishback, indefinitely delayed the listing of its Azoria Tesla Convexity exchange-traded fund which was set to launch this week.
Storebrand Asset Management was one of the institutional investors which signed the letter calling for Musk to work at least 40 hours per week, and it has this week excluded Toyota Motor Corporation due to its continued lobbying against climate regulations and policies.
Storebrand, which represents NOK 1.4 trillion (U$138.7 billion) in AUM, has sold off Toyota shares valued at NOK 850 million as of May 31 2025.
The decision to exclude Toyota was made following a four-year long period of structured engagement with the company and an escalation of engagement. Storebrand said that during this period Toyota had “failed to materially reform its climate lobbying practices and transparency”.
“This case illustrates the scale of the challenge in climate lobbying [and] it is a problem that is often underestimated by investors,” said Kamil Zabielski, Head of Sustainable Investment at Storebrand. “Climate lobbying disclosures indicate the whether the company’s business plans and commitments are in fact in line with its stated transition plan, and can expose potential reputational and legal risks.”
In its statement, Storebrand added that following the “lengthy engagement” and the “lack of sufficient progress” and indications that the company would be unable to achieve expectation set out the asset manager opted to take the “last resort” exclude Toyota from its investment universe.
Toyota’s behaviour around climate lobbying and policies has been a long-running investor concern. In 2023, Minerva Analytics reported that Toyota was being pushed by investors to strengthen its reporting around climate change activities. This included Toyota conducting a comprehensive annual review of the company’s climate-related lobbying activities and for a report to be produced on this.
Toyota has also recently faced criticism from shareholders and corporate governance organisations over its takeover of one of its suppliers, Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO), which would see the organisation privatised.
Shareholders of the Toyota Group subsidiary have expressed dissatisfaction about the ¥4.7 trillion (U$32 billion) acquisition by unlisted real estate company Toyota Fudosan and Toyota Motor Corporation Chair Akio Toyoda, including its negative impact on minority shareholders and a perceived lack of transparency.
The Asian Corporate Governance Association last week warned that “beneath the surface, the deal exposes the persistent frailties of Japan’s corporate governance regime and the enduring power of entrenched interests”.
“For minority shareholders, global investors, and advocates of reform, the TICO takeover will serve as a referendum on the credibility of Japan’s governance revolution,” the association added.
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Last Updated: 11 July 2025