He's dialing down his DOGE role but Tesla needs a new hit EV and none is on the horizon. And the company’s booming battery business will suffer from Trump’s tariffs.
Summary
Tesla reported its worst quarterly results in four years, with Q1 income down 71% and EV sales falling 13%.
Elon Musk vowed to refocus on Tesla amid backlash over his political role in the Trump Administration’s DOGE program, but analysts doubt his return will fix worsening issues.
Tesla faces eroding market share, failed products like the Cybertruck, and a coming 145% tariff on imported Chinese battery cells set to hammer the company’s battery pack business, one of the only bright spots last quarter.
Musk’s pivot to robotaxis and humanoid robots lacks credibility, and critics say Tesla has no compelling new EVs to revive growth.
For example, when I call a cab, I tell the dispatcher I don't want to ride in a Tesla taxi. And one dispatcher a few weeks ago told me I wasn't the only one requesting that.
Tesla doesn’t need him to refocus, the damage is done. He fucked it all up trying to impress everyone at 4 chan with his nazi salutes, deal with it chainsaw performance, firing thousands of people nonchalant, etc.
As long as he’s tied to the brand in any way it’s cooked.
Who cares. Tesla is run by a Nazi. It doesn’t deserve to survive. Musk doesn’t give a shit about the environment or saving it. He only cares about his bank balance.
things really went to shit when he mimicked hitler. maybe in order to reverse it he needs to mimick hitler again. now what did he do to get out of the mess he created for himself?
Burning your good will with your primary customer base by throwing your weight behind a political group full of the worst of society that has the public support of the statistically poorest in society wasn't a great long term plan?
You can't un-ring being a Nazi and I won't be buying another Tesla with or without a Nazi at the helm because we all know even if he 'steps down' his fortune will still be tied to his stock ownership.
Tesla cannot be saved until and unless Musk sells his share of the company and completely divorces himself from it. Even that may not be enough, as the brand is so closely associated with Musk that his stain may not wash off, but it's their only chance.
Here's a plan : leave the engineers do their work, stop interfering with innovation, and just shut the fuck up. Not sure it would save tesla, but it would get a fighting chance.
All he had to do was shut his fucking mouth. Tesla sells a competitively-price product and has a strong moat with their charging network. He is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, all because he doesn't know how to STFU.
We hadn't heard much from him over the past few weeks, and now we get this earnings call, and it is far worse than expected. He's known this was coming, and has been laying low, probably hoping things will improve some before making what he knows would be a disastrous earnings call. Its the equivalent of watching your diet 3 days before a doctor's appointment, hoping your weight gain and cholesterol increase won't be as bad as you know it is.
Also, it's a safe bet that his board of directors is livid, and that he has been ordered by his board to get back to work, or be removed as CEO of Tesla.
There is almost certainly a shareholder class-action suit brewing over his reckless and irresponsible behavior over the last several months, which has directly caused severe, and probably irreparable damage to the company's brand image AND it's sales around the world, as well as tanking the stock price, an unforgiveable sin in the investing world. Now that the bubble has popped, it will never inflate again. As future earnings reports are released, and sales continue to slide, the stock will continue to decline, and the cycle will continue until bankruptcy. And it is all traceable to Skum's self-indulgent, egotistical behavior.
The only question is will Skum be the only defendant, or will the lawsuit also name the individual members of the board, for not reigning him in, or firing him. They don't want to be sued alongside him, so they are forcing him to get back to work saving Tesla, thus letting them off the hook for legal liability.
Its doubtful Skum will be able to save Tesla at this point, its almost certainly too late. It is also probably too late to avoid a shareholder lawsuit. Investors have lost millions of dollars, not due to the vagaries of the market, but due to Skum's outrageous behavior, like throwing up celebratory Nazi salutes on national TV, which, as CEO, he should have realized would damage his company and its investors significantly.
And arguing that he didn't recognize the danger in advance is no excuse at all for a CEO, who should have been able to predict the response to his self-indulgent ego bender.
Shareholders have lost many millions, and they won't just let that go with an "Oh well." He's likely going to get sued, and the board is just making sure they don't go down with him.
I give Tesla two years before they file for bankruptcy, and I'm only giving it that long because HitlerPig will give him a bail out that will buy him a little time.
The tag is a lie -- he says he's dialing down on DOGE but we all know it is untrue -- but fortunately the authors clearly call bullshit on that claim in the middle of the article.
I'm curious what's going to happen if banks start calling Leon's loans since Tesla stock isn't going to be enough to cover his loans at some point, probably pretty soon.
He hasn't shot any migrants from his window in the morning. Maybe shoot migrants from your window? I don't known, that's the part I remember most about Schindler's list.
Doxing viewing surfaces! That's right! The new Tesla tells you which cars are expensive enough to drive next to you. The rear view mirrors show you if someone is Mexican or black so you can drive faster or cut them off. Extremely useful features.
We already know his management meddling wrecks things and that his workers generally prefer him to back off and let them work effectively. This can only make thing worse for his businesses.