Is Elon Musk hurting Tesla? (Mod Note Post #1)

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122485592#Comment_122485592

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122485603#Comment_122485603

Cheers

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122485592#Comment_122485592

I'm more inclined to think he's taking some hard core psychotropics tbh. There's alot of chatter he's big into ketamine , lsd and shroom use. Personally i think the whole elon working 24 7 and sleeping in the office 6 years ago is now him high on drugs **** posting on twitter at 4am.

Its got all the hallmarks of someone who's fairly unstable and no one around to reign him in.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122485620#Comment_122485620

I dunno, I've heard the ketamine rumour but not sure I believe it. If he's on drugs he hides it well, he doesn't seem to be one for the mad parties

It's amazing the shite people can come out with without the assistance of chemicals, they don't necessarily need to be on drugs to come up with crazy ideas

I think he's just a complete workaholic who lives his lifestyle around his companies. He doesn't understand anyone who thinks otherwise and believes that anyone trying to impose any kind of restrictions on him (like business regulation or laws against posting disinformation) are just designed to hold him back

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122485683#Comment_122485683

His own words. It's not a rumour he's said he self medicates.

Don't forget he got divorced and constantly tries to unblock his ex on his own twitter sight every few months. She has him blocked. People put too much idolisation into the genius billionaire speel. He's human he's incredibly flawed and he's always filled the gaps with lies and marketing

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/elon-musk-opens-up-about-drug-use-reveals-why-it-benefits-tesla-investors-5266176

80sDiesel

«Mod Note: Snip, see post #1»

80sDiesel

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/10/his-rhetoric-has-made-tesla-toxic-is-elon-musk-driving-away-his-target-market

The German pharmacy chain Rossmann was one of the first to put its head above the parapet this week. The family-owned company announced that it would not add to the 34 Teslas in its company fleet because of Musk's endorsement of Trump

JDxtra

He’s a rich loose cannon with a track record of spontaneous damaging decisions. It must be like the emperors new clothes working in there.

I’d never buy a Tesla because of it, he could do something absolutely stupid in the future which could hurt the value of the vehicles or worse.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122487668#Comment_122487668

One could argue he already did that with the price cuts over the past year. Lot of people who bought in 2022 have watched their resale value tank

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122487668#Comment_122487668

Same thing happened to VW owners when VW dropped the prices of the ID range, Mercedes Owners when they dropped the prices of the EQ cars, MG dropped too and recently Skoda owners with the Enyak.
Having a loose cannon at the wheel does not exempt the legacies from major price cuts unfortunately.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122487638#Comment_122487638

Some would argue that it's only 34 vehicles, however they're the first so far to publicly blame Elon for the decision

There was a lot of fanfare years ago about Hertz buying hundreds of Tesla's (can't remember the exact number) and apparently paid full price, which is unusual. Normally they'd get a volume discount from manufacturers, so it was a pretty big win for Tesla to get a big order without giving a discount

The way rental companies work is they sell the cars after a year or two to avoid the worst of depreciation and avoid mechanical issues or extremely high mileage

Recently Hertz paused orders of new EVs and I believe they cancelled a chunk of the Tesla order precisely because they suffered higher than expected depreciation due to price cuts

Now to be clear, I'm in favour of the price cuts. EVs were way overpriced in 2022-23 and it needed to come down. In this instance Tesla definitely forced a market reaction by cutting prices

However, if I'd bought at a high price and just seen a load of value disappear, I'd definitely be reluctant to buy again

Kramer

However, if I'd bought at a high price and just seen a load of value disappear, I'd definitely be reluctant to buy again

You're looking at it wrong there. No value has been lost. What you simply need to do is buy ANOTHER Tesla, the "cost to change" is all that matters. You'll be no more worse off, despite the €30k loss on your 2022 Model 3.

Perspective :)

Surprised if the smart folks at Hertz haven't realised that - they need to double down & buy another 10,000 Model 3s……they'll be quids in then!

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488282#Comment_122488282

There's no comparison to the multiple levels of price drop on the Tesla units the percentage value drop isn't the same all things considered. That was pretty damaging strategy for all EVs in general as the perception then was you'd loose your arse on buying an ev.

maidhc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488393#Comment_122488393

I hope this is ironic!

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488393#Comment_122488393

pretty sure the smart folks at Hertz realise that one of the key items that leads to a company’s valuation is the assets.

It’s not an issue about buying cheaper ones. Overnight their assets took a big impairment, so the value of the companY dropped. Their debt to assets ratio changed. Their cost of borrowing increased, and so on

yagan

We're definitely going to be swapping out one of our ICE cars for an EV in the next year or so (nearly pulled the trigger last year), but I can't help feeling repulsed against the Tesla brand precisely because of the antics of Musk.

Theres no doubt he made EVs attractive compared to the likes of the Leaf which just wasn't getting anyone excited.

Btw, the previous poster attacking byd because of the Chinese government is blind to the fact that half of all Teslas are made in China.

Theres even greater myopia amongst China bashers who use apple devices.

Doodah7

I asked the topic of this thread about two years ago in this forum and was ridiculed out of it. It's only now that the Tesla fanboys are starting to realise what an absolutely vile individual he is.

The phrase 'born with a silver spoon in his mouth' doesn't begin to describe him.

I would never buy any product or service associated with him.

yagan

I just read about his Email that saw people working in Twitter getting sacked if they didn't agree to his new terms within 24hrs.

Horrible bully. There is absolutely nothing to guarantee that he wouldn't do something as wreckless with a software update for the cars. The guy is unhinged.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498194#Comment_122498194

This thread is two years old! 😜

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498724#Comment_122498724

The guy can't even run a livestream in 2024, not sure he can be trusted with any kind of management position at this stage

Apparently the Trump Dump called him the greatest cutter in their little bromance session yesterday evening for all the jobs he's been cutting

Great to see the fruits of that exercise in the same bloody livestream 🤦🏻‍♂️

eightieschewbaccy

So anecdotally, I made the move to a Cupra Born earlier in the year. I considered a fair few brands but it worked for me at the time. If I'd done the purchase a few years prior, I'd absolutely be getting a Tesla. Between Musk's support for Trump, his chaotic purchase of Twitter and handling of it etc. I'm unlikely to go near the brand while he's in charge of it. That's on top of the build quality issue etc that are putting me off. With all his personal agendas, he's allowed the brand to stagnate immensely.

I can't see myself being alone with such decisions.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122500921#Comment_122500921

I suppose the brand is more popular among Trump fans now, I see the man himself got a Cybertruck as a bribe gift

Probably the most unhappy gift recipient I've ever seen 😂

I'd say one thing which is definitely not up for debate is that Elon certainly isn't helping the business.

Normally the CEO has basically one job, grow the company, Elon has failed to do that for a while now

He certainly doesn't seem to be earning his outrageous payment package, a more sensible board would be shopping around for a cheaper CEO

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503124#Comment_122503124

Is any EV brand growing at the moment?

EV’s have a some tough years ahead of them.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503156#Comment_122503156

No, and as I've said not all of that can be attributed to Elon

My point is more that he seems to be incredibly poor value for money as a CEO.

If it's debatable whether Tesla is losing significant numbers of customers because of him, then it's equally questionable if anyone is buying a Tesla specifically because Elon is in charge

I'd argue that Elon could be fired and the company would save $46 billion without any significant negative consequences to sales

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503443#Comment_122503443

On these boards there must be 100 posters that wouldn’t buy one because of him.

There has to be at least a 1000 (maybe more) sales throughout Ireland lost because of him from people that are not online. Everyone on here seems to know someone that’s not buying one because of him.

The Tesla FB Group is the same. Has to be 50/50 mix in there too with them saying they can’t stand the man.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503156#Comment_122503156

The Chinese appear to be. Advances in charging speed and that over there aren't seeming to slow their March. And they're now all launching into the US.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503456#Comment_122503456

I suppose the question is whether that is offset by people who are buying a Tesla because they like him now

Other than that YouTuber who bought a CT for Trump, I haven't seen many sales materialise from this

Some survey recently did find that Tesla was viewed more favourably among US conservatives since Elon was publicly supporting Trump

However there's a difference between "I like Tesla" and "I'm buying a Tesla"

Besides, I think there were plenty of Americans who considered themselves conservatives who already bought Tesla. There's a decent number of posters here who bought Teslas without buying into any liberal politics or climate change

So yeah, I can't think of any way he's helping the brand at the moment. There's $46 billion wasted 😬

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503463#Comment_122503463

It's important to remember they're growing internationally at the moment but not within China. There's been a pretty fierce price war there to the point where many brands were probably selling at a loss

There's been some theories that the sales growth in the EU and US is dumping of excess production outside of China

Certainly the EU seems to think so with their round of fines on Chinese brands

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503463#Comment_122503463

The Americans are screaming for the BYD online. As much as they are screaming though, Americans are American biased. I don’t think they’ll buy Chinese cars enough to trouble American made, they have enough hatred for Tesla already and that’s an American brand!

I wonder will they have to rebrand them, Maybe “Acura” will take some of them under their wings!

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503709#Comment_122503709

In fairness they said the same about the Japanese, even after Pearl harbour. Japanese cars from the 70 80s onwards always incredibly popular. Country of 350 million. If it's quality product at right price they'll go for it. If not, they're dead.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503709#Comment_122503709

I don't think the Chinese are that bothered about the US market, they're not acting like the Japanese carmakers in the 80s that created new marques specifically for the Us market like Lexus, and later Infiniti.

The fact that Ford have stopped making sedans for the US market shows the dominance of trucks now. It's a segment that's really unique and not really worth chasing for global automakers. Even Suzuki pulled out the US market but stayed in Mexico and the rest of Latin America for this reason.

If demand for smaller vehicles rebounds in the US then like Japan before Chinese brands will simply set up plants in the US to avoid tariffs.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504173#Comment_122504173

They changed their tune on JDM cars in recent years. There’s a restriction on importing cars into the states and once that’s past, they can do what they want. Skyline GTR’s, Evo’s and even little Pajeros all increased on priced substantially when they were inportable to the stages. So yes, they will change their tune when it suits them alright.