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Final Up to date on: twenty first Might 2025, 09:28 am
At this time, Elon Musk’s propaganda machine is in overdrive (or, as Tesla would put it, they’re in “range mode”). Elon is now finished with politics, and he’s going to give attention to his core corporations like Tesla.
Not solely are Elon and sympathetic Trump Regime officers pushing this narrative, however they’re pulling in mainly anybody they’ll to verify everybody is aware of Elon goes again to work.
It was a full courtroom push right this moment Wally, two Elon interviews, and Transport Secretary Duffman interview within the Tesla manufacturing facility. www.cnbc.com/video/2025/0…
Considering Previous The Sale
For many individuals, the primary intuition to countering this narrative will likely be to disclaim that Elon Musk goes to give attention to the businesses extra. I personally doubt that he’s actually finished with politics. As an alternative of brazenly espousing authoritarian insurance policies and supporting the regime, he can very simply simply do issues behind the scenes to undermine freedom and human rights.
However, if we give attention to whether or not he’s telling the reality, we are going to finally discover that we’ve skipped previous a way more vital query: Will Tesla be a stronger firm with Elon Musk spending extra time on it?
For individuals who solely began considering Elon Musk was an issue in 2024, skipping previous that query will work. For folks targeted on partisan politics, him getting out (a minimum of publicly) is a “mission accomplished” second. Placing strain on Musk’s enterprise empire resulted in him backing off, proper?
However, as with different “mission accomplished” moments we should always all be conversant in, to say victory at this level could be extraordinarily brief sighted.
Tesla Has Been Troubled By Musk’s Poor Selections For Years
On my solution to Moab final month, I observed one thing a bit insane: so much filled with Tesla Cybertrucks. Up to now, folks driving by a Tesla retail location would see a mixture of automobiles to serve various buyer wants and desires. As an alternative, there have been dozens of ugly stainless wedges parked out entrance searching for consumers.
Again in 2019, I identified that the Cybertruck was a mistake. Positive, recent designs can generally shake up a stagnant business, however on the similar time, we have to think about why pickup trucks are built the way they are. The boring, modular design of vans is perhaps dangerous for effectivity and dangerous for individuals who need one thing a bit extra unique, nevertheless it unlocks economies of scale that producers desperately must compete.
The Stans identified that there have been a whole lot of 1000’s after which hundreds of thousands of reservations. Actually anybody saying the truck gained’t promote properly have to be out of contact, they mentioned. However the truck would by no means promote for $40,000. And anybody with $100 might reserve one, and there have been even individuals who didn’t have a driver’s license placing in reservations to look cool to fellow Stans and grifters.
Now, with the vans piling up and severe points coming to gentle, it’s turning into clear that the Cybertruck was simply one other dangerous thought that might run out of sizzling air.
Sadly, it’s removed from the primary. When you learn books like Edward Niedermeyer’s Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motorsit turns into clear that the corporate has finished issues like this again and again. Issues that pumped up inventory costs or introduced in subsidy cash with out understanding embrace:
- Battery swap stations
- “Alien Juggernaut” totally automated factories
- Full Self Driving by the tip of this yr (virtually yearly going again virtually a decade)
- Deleting important bodily controls
- Tesla Roadster 2.0 referrals and manufacturing
- Tesla Semi manufacturing in actual numbers (supposedly coming in 2026 now)
In Niedermeyer’s guide, one key story a few Tesla worker making use of for a job at a Toyota plant reveals us a deeper drawback: making an attempt to make automobiles like software program. The story goes that the Tesla worker was pleased with having “saved the day” a number of occasions to maintain automobiles rolling off the road, however Toyota’s executives weren’t impressed. Why? As a result of Toyota would by no means have the necessity for somebody to heroically clear up an enormous drawback. They’re so cautious that no days ever want saved.
Malice or Incompetence?
Watching Tesla go from one unrealistic concept that pumps the inventory to the subsequent for years leads folks to imagine that that is all a part of a scheme to rake in cash. I’ve no proof that Elon Musk is deliberately scheming to tear off traders and taxpayers, and possibly by no means will, so I gained’t make that accusation. Hanlon’s razor might very properly apply right here.
However does it actually matter? Not likely.
If it’s not all a rip-off, the opposite rationalization is incompetence. If Elon Musk actually does go from dangerous thought to dangerous thought, dragging the corporate alongside from catastrophe to catastrophe, that doesn’t make him a match chief govt. It makes him a good larger legal responsibility to the way forward for the corporate.
Blaming It All On Politics
Elon Musk would have us all imagine that Tesla was doing nice till late 2024, and that his involvement in politics is what put the corporate in a nasty spot. He’s such a terrific chief that him taking day without work is what made the inventory value and gross sales go down. All he must do now’s put “DOGE” in another person’s palms, give attention to Tesla and different core corporations, and every thing will return to the place it was very quickly.
However, to imagine this, now we have to disregard the earlier decade or extra of his management on the firm. We’ve to overlook or be blissfully ignorant to the way in which the corporate stumbled from dangerous name to dangerous name. We’ve to overlook that we don’t have Tesla Semis getting handed by Roadster 2.0s, each driving themselves whereas the occupants sleep. We’ve to overlook that the corporate virtually went bankrupt in 2018. (It was two weeks away based on Musk himself.) We’ve to overlook that Cybertrucks are clogging up Tesla tons.
The unhappy reality is that this newest dangerous name (pursuing politics as a substitute of remedy when disowned by a transgender daughter) in all probability gained’t be the final. Ultimately, he’s going to screw up badly sufficient or sufficient occasions that the corporate’s traders lose out large time.
However in the event you’re silly sufficient to purchase Tesla inventory as a result of he’s coming again to work, you in all probability should get ripped off. Simply don’t say you weren’t warned.
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