Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in court this week defending his 2017-2018 compensation package at the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, in which he made $56 billion.
In a Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday, Musk said he was “focused” on Tesla in 2017, defending his pay package by adding that the company was in “crisis,” according to Reuters.
The statements came as a defense to the lawsuit, which was filed by Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta who alleges that the pay package was founded on basic performance targets but was approved by a compliant board of directors after Musk used dominant tactics to dictate the package’s terms.
Breakthrough Twitter 2.0 Requires ‘Working Long Hours at High Intensity’, Says Elon Musk https://t.co/tLuhokUPbs
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) November 16, 2022
“I was entirely focused on the execution of the company,” Musk said in court, also adding that he did not decide the compensation plan’s stipulations.
Musk also noted that he denied pay packages requiring him to use a time clock or commit specific hours to Tesla.
“I pretty much work all the time,” Musk said. “I don’t know what a punch clock would achieve.”
Additionally, Musk said he didn’t expect Tesla to survive in 2017, and that he was simply placing his focus where he felt he was needed — addressing the production “crisis” at the automaker.
“So in times of crisis, allocation changes to where the crisis is,” Musk said.
Musk also added during his testimony he expects to “reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time.”
