this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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Idk, even before Musk went full meth head things were already heading south pretty fast - they'd completely squandered their first mover advantage and their "move fast and break things" approach was really starting to take a toll on their brand reputation. Teslas were already starting to be known as expensive cars with terrible build quality, then the constant delays and broken promises about self driving did them no favors either.
A Tesla made sense when they were pretty much the only really viable luxury EV, but when you can get equivalent cars (with better build quality) from established Western manufacturers for ~75% the price or from a Chinese manufacturer for ~60%, what advantage do they have?
Musk's cult of personally is/was a big part of it, so they are kinda screwed either way - the stink of Musk won't instantly vanish if they get rid of him, and taints everything while he stays
It really shows how good traditional vehicle manufacturers actually are and the whole worth of Tesla is basically a meme stock. Toyota, Mazda etc are still making cars that run almost new 10 years later.
The initial cars were the worst (cyber truck excluded) and they had hardware store bodge jobs and overly complex mechanisms. But by the Model 3 they had revised a lot of the problems away, especially on the Model S.
They were still never built like a Mercedes (or even a VW), but they had improved a lot of the early issues. Then Musk got even nuts-er
Yeah I think they would have had to slow down or stop sales and make a big deal about reworking their production lines for better QC. Then come back a year or two later with actual improvements. I think Tesla probably have enough brand recognition that they can survive without Musk so hopefully they kick him out.
I think the US car industry as a whole is due for a major price adjustment, so I kind of see that as it's own issue. Car prices need to be cut at least in half to make them practical as utility items. We're being asked to drive vehicles that costs as much as a house did 30 years ago, and are approaching the same size, on the highway and leave them parked inches from each other.