Tesla stock was rising in early Thursday trading as investors pondered when brand and trade pressure would ease.

Tesla stock was up 1.8% in premarket trading at $281.22, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were rising 0.9% and 0.6%, respectively.

Through Wednesday, shares were down 3.8% for the week. One factor has been weak sales data.

Tesla sales in Germany fell 46% year over year in April. That's actually an improvement from the first quarter when sales fell 62% year over year. Still, going from down 62% to down 46% doesn't qualify as a recovery and continues to stoke fears that Elon Musk's political activities are hurting sales. Tesla management even referenced brand image "challenges" on their first-quarter earnings conference call.

On that call, Musk indicated he would spend less time in Washington and more time in Texas at Tesla's headquarters. The impact of that decision might take months to suss out.

Tesla doesn't have brand image issues in China, but President Trump's trade war has Chinese car buyers favoring local models, according to Wall Street analysts. That is starting to have an impact. Domestic sales data tracked by Citi's Jeff Chung show that over the past five weeks ending May 4, Tesla's sales in China were down about 15% year-over-year. Tesla's Chinese sales were down about 2% in the first quarter of 2025.

April isn't looking good in the U.S., either. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported U.S. electric-vehicle sales fell 5% year-over-year in April, citing data from Motor Intelligence, with Tesla down 13%. Tesla sales in the U.S. fell 8.6% in the first quarter, according to Cox Automotive.

Despite weakening sales, Tesla shares are up 55% over the past 12 months heading into Thursday's trading. That gain is despite estimates for 2025 vehicle sales going from 2.1 million vehicles to 1.7 million over the same span.

Investors are more focused on AI opportunities. Tesla is slated to launch a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. Seeing Teslas drive paying customers around the town without any drivers would go a long way to calming fears about the car business.