There is speculation that Elon Musk (pictured) will merge Tesla with his rocket firm SpaceX, which joined the stock market in New York last month.

Tesla car sales jumped over the past three months in a possible sign the worst of the boycotts against the automaker and lost market share to rivals are behind it.

Tesla is trying to recover from consecutive annual declines in vehicle sales that were partly caused by a consumer backlash against CEO Elon Musk.