Tesla boss Elon Musk sees £7.5bn wiped off his fortune as shares in the electric car firm tank

Elon Musk saw around £7.5 billion of his fortune wiped out as a fall in profits at the electric car maker sent its shares tumbling.

In New York, the stock fell as much as 9 percent, causing the company’s value to drop by £57 billion, reducing the value of Musk’s stake – although his holdings are still worth £75 billion and he remains the richest person in the world is.

Investors dumped Tesla shares after the company made a profit of just £1.5 billion in the three months to the end of September, down 44 percent from a year earlier.

Losses: Tesla boss Elon said high interest rates are making electric cars unaffordable for many people

Revenues rose 9 percent to £19.2 billion, but this was the slowest pace of growth since the start of 2020.

The profit drop came amid growing concerns that Musk’s decision to cut the price of Tesla cars to boost sales will impact the bottom line.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and now owner of X, which used to be Twitter, was downbeat, saying high interest rates were making electric cars unaffordable for many people.

“I’m concerned about the high interest rate environment we’re in,” he said in a conference call with analysts on Wednesday.

There was little to cheer about ahead of the launch next month of Tesla’s electric pickup known as Cybertruck.

Musk warned that it will take “tremendous work” to get production levels to where they need to be, due to the angular design and stainless steel housing, saying: “We’ve dug our own grave with Cybertruck.”

The somber tone contrasted with his claim last year that Tesla was “recession-proof.”