[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Ross Gerber (로스 거버), once a leading Tesla bull on Wall Street, has sparked controversy by arguing that Tesla should sell its electric-vehicle business to rival Rivian.

Cryptopolitan reported on Feb. 18 that Gerber recently wrote on X, formerly Twitter, saying, "Unfortunately the value of Tesla’s brand has been reduced to a negative," and added that Tesla could sell more cars if it changed its name and sold its EV business to Rivian. He said the Tesla brand was no longer an asset but was acting as a liability.

This view has also been raised among some investors. Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, has said that Elon Musk's political activities had a negative impact on Tesla's brand image.

Rivian recently reported results that beat market expectations, sending its shares sharply higher. After the earnings release, the stock rose 27 percent in a single day. The company posted $144 million in gross profit in 2025, a sharp improvement from a $1.2 billion net loss in 2024. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called it "a meaningful turnaround in a long time" and assessed it positively.

Rivian said higher software and services revenue, a higher average selling price and lower cost per vehicle drove the improvement. Deliveries in 2025 fell to 42,247 vehicles from 51,579 a year earlier. It set this year's delivery target at 62,000 to 67,000.

It also said Amazon is operating more than 30,000 Rivian electric delivery vans in parts of the United States and Europe. That is part of a contract to introduce 100,000 vehicles by 2030. Rivian is also preparing a major upgrade of the vans.

Rivian plans to announce the official price of its next-generation R2 model on March 12. The vehicle was recently spotted during winter testing in Fairbanks, Alaska, and footage also showed it charging at a Tesla Supercharger.

Tesla, by contrast, posted 2025 net profit of $3.8 billion, down 46 percent from a year earlier, marking a second straight year of weak performance.

Controversy over its self-driving functions is also continuing. A user recently released a video showing a vehicle using Full Self-Driving, or FSD, software that appeared to try to enter a lake by following a boat ramp, stoking the dispute. The vehicle was reported to be equipped with FSD version 14.2.2.4.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began an FSD-related probe in October last year covering more than 2.88 million Tesla vehicles. The move followed more than 50 traffic safety violation cases and multiple accident reports.

Gerber also criticised FSD as an "annoying feature" and questioned its reliability. Elon Musk, by contrast, has been stressing that Tesla has the most self-driving cars in the world. Gary Black, an investor at Future Fund LLC, said that if Tesla formalises plans to operate hundreds of unmanned robotaxis in Austin and other cities, it could have a positive impact on the stock price.

The market is increasingly seeing Tesla's brand value, trust in its self-driving technology, and the competitive landscape in the EV market as key variables that will shape the stock's direction.

Unfortunately the value of Tesla’s brand has been reduced to a negative. Tesla would sell more cars if they changed their name and sold the EV business to Rivian. $TSLA $RIVN