Paying a real dividend on a quarterly basis, however trivial (say 1c), would not normally need shareholder approval to start as interim dividends are a board perogative. Depending on the Mem & Arts of Tesla (and US law, which is not my thing) the final divvi might need to be voted on at the AGM, but not the interim ones. Paying a real dividend would tend to cause naked shorts to contemplate their risk profile and FTD evidence trail a little more thoughtfully. OK, it is not the big stick of a share split/dividend in threatening naked shorts but it might be helpful.
Also paying a 1c/qtr dividend might put additional pressure on the ratings agencies to rerate Tesla to investment grade. In one sense that does not matter to private shareholders, but it would enable those funds that have a "investment-grade-only" mandate restriction to become investors. By now they probably really want that re-rate as their comparative performance will be suffering vis-a-vis any of their peer groups who can hold. And almost irrespective of whether those funds are passive trackers, closet trackers, or actives their buying in would tend to force prices up. Whilst the buy-in is a one-time event what would be more significant imho is that thereafter they would largely tend to be fairly inactive holders and so damp volatility, and inhibit bad behaviour through better alignment of underlying incentives for more of the actors in the investment community.
