Musk convinced his board to hand him a monster pay package—but that was before Tesla lost more than $500 billion in market value.

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm on Thursday denied a Wall Street Journal report that said board members had reached out to executive search firms to find a new replacement for CEO Elon Musk.

The carmaker denied a report that its board had explored finding a successor to Elon Musk. But even if he sticks around, he and the company face big challenges.