Honestly, if another CEO steps in and Elon retires, the company might actually recover. Right now the image of Tesla is tied too closely to Elon who we know is an asshat.
They might finally develop the affordable, mass market car that Musk has been claiming is in the works for years, instead of idiotic and expensive passion projects like the cybertruck.
Musk thinks he already did that with the model 3, right? Billionaires have no concept of “affordable” after all.
It's the Model 2, which he has being talking about for years but it's not clear if it will ever happen.
"What could a banana possibly cost Michael? $10?"
Idk, I think the idea of selling trucks want bad. Americans love trucks. That being said, the execution seems very poor.
The idea of a truck EV isn't bad market wise, look at Rivian for example. It was purely poor execution, no doubt attributed to Musk.
I've got coworkers who literally think Elon is humanity's savior. This came up today (shared a pic of a tesla w/ a bumper sticker that said "I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy..." and they IMMEDIATELY started gargling his metaphorical balls).
There's a tiny sliver of market that represents the overlapped portion of 1) hopeless rednecks, and 2) people interested in owning an electric vehicle... that's Tesla's target customer. It's gonna saturate in a hurry, but it's also a cult-like following of cash cows eager to be milked. My money's on Tesla's performance steadying out and maintaining a not-great but not-bad-enough-to-tank-the-company level of financial success.
Depends on what you mean by "recover". It might recover in the sense that the entire company won't go bankrupt and will find a sustainable way to continue existing, but it will never recover to the current stock worth. Tesla has been grossly overvalued as whatever huge potential it had has been squandered. The stock will drop regardless of what Tesla does and it's highly unlikely it will ever reach such worth ever again.
It’s not just his image. He’s an awful manager and has made some atrocious decision in the last few years affecting Tesla employees, customers and shareholders… even people who don’t buy teslas due to the unsafe FSD. He’s made Tesla a financial and physical danger to the public.
Turns out business is easy when running a virtual monopoly while receiving truckloads of government welfare. Shit gets harder when actual car manufacturers get in on the game, competing with an i-phone you put wheels on and called a car.
Unfortunately this is gonna bite NASA due to them handing the lander mission to Musk and his bogus claims, and in that case there won't be many competitors ready to pick up the slack
So far, SpaceX has been run with much less Musk involvement. That could change on a whim, but so far it seems to be a pretty well run government-supplier under Gwynne Shotwell.
The problem is starship, Musk's mars-shot brain child, seems to be increasingly behind schedule for the Artemis missions.
Not to mention using starship is apparently forcing any moon landings to launch between 8-12 rockets to get one SpaceX lander on the moon?
Overall it seems like SpaceX is getting fucked by Musk's involvement as well.
Since Musk outed himself as pro-right-wing idiot with his X fiasco, the mostly left leaning electric vehicle crowd is looking for untainted brands.
looking for untainted brands.
I wish them good luck for the hunt
I'll settle for one where the CEO isn't a Nazi.
Let's be honest, they are looking for brands where it is not everyone's first association that the CEO is in the news every week for being in the wrong side of the culture war. They don't mind if the company they buy from does some union busting and buys raw materials mined by slaves, as long as it's drowned out by the marketing of said brand.
He shot down his cult of personality in favor of the base that shits on electric cars and bombed his brand by releasing an all-purpose truck that can't even survive a car wash. Tesla will get what it deserves with a CEO like him.
Yet another CEO of a luxury item company that thought fame made him untouchable finds out that running your mouth off will turn people off from buying something they don’t actually need. If you sell a product favored by progressive and left leaning individuals and go on right wing rants you’re gonna have problems. That, and massively under-delivering on promised car features.
*I figure at the price point Tesla cars are they are indeed a luxury item. It’s a luxury to be able to afford them and afford the statement an owner makes by buying one (early adopter, environmental, whatever) There’s plenty of ICE cars, hybrids, or PHEV that are cheaper, more reliable, and have better service availability.
also moving all the controls to a touch screen? stupid. A car isn't a smart phone
It's weird, because in many ways he could've been viewed as a champion of the left. He owns one of the largest brands in "sustainable" travel, owns a space company, and has money to burn.
I think he probably had a mental breakdown a few years ago, and that what we've seen is from him is basically untreated mental illness, exacerbated by being pals with the likes of Rogan and Chappelle, two guys that can handle fame and not give a fuck.
But things could've been very different if he weren't such a cunt.
He comes from a South African Apartheid family that got rich with blood diamonds. Can't expect much more from that than a white nationalist.
I'm sure it's anyone else's fault but Elon, just ask him he'll say so.
It's the fault of those 9% he fired, so everything is fine now.
/S
Skipping on an entry level model will be a mistake that will cost them greatly.
I wonder if there was ever an entry-level model to begin with. It's been on the cards for about a decade, and many people have looked at Tesla saying "wow, a good electric car, I'll definitely get one once they're affordable".
Yeah. Especially considering EVs were generally going to be more appealing to younger people as new technology that demonstrates care for the environment and future
I think people just realized that Tesla's aren't that great. They're not build well, simple repairs cost a fortune and for the same price you get better vehicles from other manufacturers, especially from ones in China.
Also, the resale values are…not good.
Really? I looked at prices of used EVs recently and was dissappointed at how expensive they were. I would have liked to be able to afford one as a first car.
Used prices have plummeted in part because new prices have dropped a lot. If new prices stabilize (big if), the resale value should retain itself a bit better going forward.
It's normal for a 1-year-old car to lose 20% of its value compared to a brand new model. But if you bought a $60,000 model a year ago, and that model dropped to $50,000 new, then your one-year-old car might only be worth $40,000 or so (20% less than a new car, but 33% less than what you paid for it).
You can't get the Chinese ones in the U.S., so options are more limited. But there are still alternatives.
This is all because they failed to award Elmo with those billions. Quick, there is still time to save the company. /s
I guess... Now's the time to short?
No, never short Tesla. The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.
This is a fantastic quote btw
I would have thought the same thing but the after hours ticker has the stock up damn near $20 which is just insane to me.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
When Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers.
Today’s earnings report is expected to include Tesla’s lowest profit margins in six years, a sign that rampant price-cutting continues to exact a toll.
Musk reportedly canceled the low-cost Model 2 in favor of the upcoming robotaxi — despite repeatedly failing to make good on his promise for a fully driverless vehicle.
Tesla has been forced to recall its two main driver-assist systems, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, in the face of increased government scrutiny over the company’s autonomy claims.
And Musk’s tenure as head of X, formerly Twitter, has alienated many of Tesla’s progressive-leaning customers, who have watched in horror as he promotes right-wing conspiracy theories on the platform.
While other companies are pursuing important innovations like lighter, more powerful batteries and recycling techniques that can shrink the auto industry’s carbon footprint, Tesla is putting it all on the line for an “apocalypse-proof truck” and a full suite of vaporware robots.
The original article contains 1,146 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 84%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
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I'm honestly shocked. Who could have predicted? 😲
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