Summary
Tesla faces a second consecutive year of sales decline after a 13% drop in Q1 2024 deliveries, the steepest in nearly three years.
CEO Elon Musk’s alignment with Donald Trump and far-right politics has damaged Tesla’s brand, triggering global protests and vandalism.
Analysts attribute the sales slide primarily to reputational harm, compounded by aging models and fierce competition from BYD and others.
Deutsche Bank forecasts a 5% sales dip this year. Musk’s political role has fueled calls for boycotts, with concerns that prolonged involvement could cause lasting brand damage.
If Tesla fires Musk and Musk divests his stock and interests in the company, I’ll buy a Tesla immediately. (This offer is for a limited time.)
I wouldn’t even then. There are so many better options now, in both design and build quality.
The only path to redemption for him is to confess his role in stealing the 2024 presidential election, help bring Trump and his cronies to justice, and serve his own prison sentences for all the crimes he and his DOGE lackeys committed against the American people.
You must be in USA, where Tesla is protected behind trade barriers. Because in the rest of the world, Tesla is not that competitive anymore.
If you want straight up competition VW group has better cars and a wider range (VW, Audi, Skoda, Cupra and Porsche). Renault also has some good options, and If you want even better than that, we have BMW and Mercedes. But they are also more expensive.
If you want good range but cheap, we have decent Chinese options like BYD, MG, NIO, Xpeng despite the 17% tariff.
But also Nissan and Toyota have good options, and Volvo and Polestar. And Mazda just announced their e6.
Even Stelantis seems to be making a slightly better effort now, With Opel, Peugeot, Citroen and FIAT.
None of the above cars will do phantom brakes, or cut your fingers off on the trunk. or lock you in if the car catches fire. Or have a 30% failure rate at the first mandatory safety check. Not even the Chinese are that bad!
Here (EU) there is absolutely no reason to buy a Tesler, except if you only heard 10 years ago they were good, and haven’t had any updates since.
Oh BTW even USA had a decent competitor with the Ford Mustang. But I guess that’s over now, and I’d really hate to have to buy an EV in USA now.
There are basically two reasonably priced sedans here, with the Ionic 6 being the other. I guess there’s the Porsche Taycan.
Oh boy I completely forgot Hyundai and KIA?!
I’m not so fond of the instrumentation of the Ionic though, it’s too much like Tesla, lacking buttons and relying on using the screen.
KIA doesn’t make EV sedans.
I know, I just forgot to mention them in my list of available options here that compete with Tesla.
I did look at the BYD Han, but besides not being available here, it certainly isn’t cheaper on price.
Ideally I’d like something that does Vehicle to Home charging through the normal charge port. (Not outlets.)
They can never fire Elon. Without him, there’s no denying Tesla is just another auto maker. And if Tesla is just another auto maker, the valuation should be significantly lower than most others because at the end of they day, they ain’t sellin enough cars.
Their pe ratio is something like 115. A normal car company has a pe ratio of 7. That bubble gonna burst.
Sure they can. Anything Musk provided can be done without Musk. He’s not that integral, especially now.
I think you kinda missed the point. To fire him would be admitting he isn’t anything special which also means neither is Tesla. Ford had $48BB in Q4 revenue and trades for around $10/share. Tesla had $25BB in Q4 revenue, yet trades for $240/share. Without Elon, Tesla is just another car company and would likely lose over $230/share. They can never fire Elon. They are paid in shares. The only thing they care about is that number and absolutely nothing else.
Share price isn’t a useful number since the quantity of shares is not equal between the two.
Ford’s cumulative stock value (market cap) is about $38 on $185 in revenue (in billions)
Tesla’s cumulative stock value is $860 on $97 in revenue (in billions)
So Tesla is trading on a value that is 2200% that of Ford on 50% of the revenue.
That only occurs because Musk is a running the largest confidence scheme in history.