When you consider how rich and well-connected the players who stand to lose if Tesla wins, I don’t think it’s at all crazy to suggest that they are using some of that wealth to slow them down. If you happen to have 10 billion hanging around and there are billions more on the line, it’d almost be stupid not to. There’s no law against malicious short selling assuming you’re not outright lying about them in print. Oil companies have a the means, motive, and opportunity. Exxon Mobil alone made $20b in profit last year. 30% of TSLA is 12b or so. If they can delay the electric transition by a couple of years by kicking in a few billions along with the other big ones, that’s a great return on investment even if they take a huge bath on the shorts.

Can I prove that’s what’s going on? No, I’m just some dude on the internet. But it really is not implausible at all.