Elon Musk Says He Will Pause Selling Tesla Shares

“You certainly have my commitment I won’t sell stock until, I don’t know, probably two years from now. Definitely not next year under any circumstances and probably not the year thereafter,” he said. Mr. Musk has pledged not to sell Tesla shares before only to resume doing so.

The billionaire’s comments on the Twitter Spaces forum were some of his most expansive to address worries among Tesla investors that he has been distracted since he bought Twitter Inc. in October in a deal valued at $44 billion. Tesla’s stock has plunged 60% this year, performing worse than the wider market. 

Some of Mr. Musk’s handling of Twitter and his political comments on the platform have spurred concern Tesla’s brand could suffer. The company’s image has taken a dent in recent months, in part because of Mr. Musk’s Twitter involvement, according to brand surveys.

Mr. Musk said that he wouldn’t muzzle himself on Twitter. “I’m not gonna suppress my views just to boost the stock price,” he said on the Twitter Spaces call. 

Mr. Musk said he couldn’t think of a Tesla issue he didn’t deal with in recent weeks because he was busy at Twitter. “I had to have a sort of short-term, month-or-so if just getting the insane Twitter costs under control or Twitter would have just gone bankrupt,” he said. He added “that is basically almost entirely done” with some more engineering work left to be accomplished. Mr. Musk this week suggested once again he may step down as Twitter CEO if he could find a suitable replacement.

The Tesla boss also tried to strike an upbeat note about the car company’s long-term prospects even as concerns have been growing that demand for its vehicles is softening. Tesla is offering rare discounts for buyers to take delivery of vehicles before year-end.

“There is stormy weather ahead, but then there is going to be sunshine thereafter,” Mr. Musk said. He said near-term department pressures were driven by rising interest rates.

The economic turbulence could impact some of Tesla’s plans, he suggested. “Are we talking about a mild recession, a moderate recession, a severe recession? We don’t know yet,” Mr. Musk said.

Photos: How Elon Musk Made His Fortune

In October, Mr. Musk said Tesla could pursue a share buyback of $5 billion to $10 billion and said a meaningful buyback was likely. The company has discussed such a share repurchase at the board level, he said, but hasn’t signed off on it.

“The board is very open to doing a buyback,” Mr. Musk said in a live conversation broadcast on Twitter, though he added, “It wouldn’t be smart to do a buyback and then discover the recession is worse than 2009.”

The Tesla boss also said the car company would continue to invest as part of its growth plans. “We are applying capital at pretty close to the fastest rate we can spend capital and not be wasteful,” he said.

The company, he said, is “close to picking a location for another Gigafactory,” without providing details. Mr. Musk has said Tesla might open 10 to 12 new factories to help boost Tesla output to 20 million vehicles at the end of the decade.

He said Tesla also planned to start refining battery-grade lithium at a facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, in about two years to help the electric-vehicle maker satisfy its need for material needed for power cells.

Amid investor concerns about Tesla—the company’s stock fell 8.88% on Thursday—Mr. Musk said, “The actual execution of the company is outstanding.” Tesla shares advanced more than 2% in aftermarket trading after Mr. Musk said he would pause selling shares. 

Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Tesla is offering discounts for buyers to take delivery of vehicles before year-end. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Twitter was offering discounts. (Corrected on Dec. 22)