Dem
47
GOP
53
At the moment, there is not much that the average citizen can do to push back against the anti-democratic activities of Co-President Elon Musk. However, as both David Zipper (of Slate) and Jonathan V. Last (of The Bulwark) point out, there is one potential attack surface: Tesla.
As anyone who follows the stock market, even a little bit, knows, Tesla's share price is far out of line with the company's fundamentals. That is to say, it's wildly overvalued, based primarily on hopes for the future of electric vehicles, and on the belief that Musk is a miracle worker. Meanwhile, an enormous percentage of his net worth is tied up in Tesla stock. He's never going to be poor, of course. But if Tesla takes a huge hit, then Musk takes a huge hit, both in the wallet and in terms of his public image and his ego.
Naturally, most people are not in the market for a Tesla. But some people are, and Zipper and Last both advise those folks to look elsewhere, especially since Tesla's products have been pretty much stagnant for 7-8 years. They also advise that consumers avoid renting Teslas, and that those folks who own Teslas should sell them. The latter move will serve to drive down the price for used Teslas, which in turn will drive down the demand for new Teslas.
Already in 2025, Tesla registrations are way down, and that's in comparison to 2024, when they were also way down. This is true in the U.S., and it's even more true in Europe. For example, sales are down 60% in Germany and 63% in France, as compared to the same time period last year. This is despite the fact that EV sales, overall, are up considerably.
It is not entirely clear why so many people are losing interest in Tesla. Part of it is undoubtedly increased competition; quite a few legacy car makers have come out with EVs that are attractive in various ways, while there are also some very interesting new EVs coming out of newly founded carmakers in India and China. In comparison, Tesla models—which again, haven't been substantially updated in years—are old hat. Presumably, Elon Musk's turn toward far-right politics, both in the U.S. and in Europe, hasn't helped the brand out, either, since EV purchasers skew pretty liberal.
The only major new product that Tesla has launched in the last half-decade is the Cybertruck, and the news on that front is very poor. First, presumably because the vehicle is expensive (and, to most people, really ugly), it's just not selling. For example, there were just 9,000 of them sold in California last year. Not great in a wealthy, EV-friendly state with more than 30 million people. Further, the Cybertruck has not undergone government testing because the government has limited resources, and focuses on vehicles that move far more units than Tesla does with the Cybertruck. However, a private automotive publication (AutoWire) has crunched the data, and found that Cybertruck drivers are 17 times more likely to burn to death in a crash than were drivers of the notoriously unsafe Ford Pinto. That revelation is not going to help sales (though it will help the pocketbooks of lawyers who specialize in lawsuits against car manufacturers).
Add it all up, and Musk the businessman is on a downward trend, one nearly as precipitous as the upward trend of Musk the co-president. In the end, the two careers are not compatible; he's hurting Tesla by not being available and by being toxic. It is likely he's going to have to choose one career or the other sometime soon, and that could mean that his time as Tesla CEO is nearing its end. (Z)