A Pennsylvania public pension fund will likely be the first pension fund in the U.S. to divest from Tesla. The Lehigh County Pension Board, which oversees the $500 million Lehigh County Employees’ Retirement Fund, passed a resolution by a 4 to 2 vote on Wednesday to end the purchase of shares of Tesla Inc. and will seek to completely divest its holdings.
The resolution will pause new Tesla stock purchases in the pension’s actively managed funds.
In an op-ed for nonprofit news website Common Dreams, Lehigh Country Comptroller Mark Pinsley, who is running for Pennsylvania auditor general, called Tesla CEO Elon Musk a symbol of political division and said the Tesla chief executive was destabilizing the company.
Pinsley also called on other pension funds to review their Tesla holdings, saying that pension funds cannot be fiduciaries to their members if they are “silent partners.”
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“[Musk is] destabilizing one of America’s most recognizable brands. The consequences are already here: public walkouts, showroom protests, declining global sales,” Pinsley said. “For those of us managing public money, those signs matter. Tesla no longer behaves like a company focused on innovation, customer loyalty, or product integrity. It behaves like a company driven by ego. That is not a foundation we can trust with our employees’ retirements.”
A spokesperson for Lehigh County did not respond to a request for comment.
Tesla—and Musk—have come under criticism from numerous institutional investors.
Musk’s political ventures in the administration of President Donald Trump have led to a backlash among some electric vehicle buyers; in the first quarter of 2025, Tesla registrations fell 37% across Europe year-over-year, including drop of more than 80% in Sweden. Meanwhile, EV sales rose 28% across the continent.
In April, state treasurers from eight states issued a letter to the company’s board of directors, urging them to ensure that Musk’s focus is on the company.
“We are increasingly concerned that Tesla’s recent performance signals deeper governance and leadership challenges that, if left unaddressed, could have serious consequences for the company and its stakeholders,” the letter stated.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla’s board was considering a replacement for Musk, who in a Q1 earnings call confirmed he would cut back on his time at the Department of Government Efficiency service temporary organization and focus more time on Tesla, causing the stock to rally.
Still, some institutional investors, like the Lehigh system, are rethinking their Tesla investments. In March, Danish pension fund AkademikerPension threatened to sell its Tesla shares and add the company to its exclusion list, adding that Musk was destroying the company’s brand value.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander had previously called for the New York City Law Department to pursue securities litigation against Tesla on behalf of the city’s five pension funds, which collectively saw the value of their Tesla shares fall to $831 million as of March 28 from $1.26 billion on December 31, 2024.
“Electric vehicles are a critical part of our energy transition to reduce greenhouse gases in our transportation sector,” Lander said in an April 22 statement celebrating Earth Day. “While Tesla is one of the largest players in the space, the company faces massive challenges because their CEO Elon Musk would rather be best friends-in-chief with Donald Trump and turn the federal government into a chop shop.”
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Tags: Divestment, Elon Musk, Lehigh County Employees’ Retirement Fund, Mark Pinsley, Tesla
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