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Tesla sales are collapsing globally partly due to Musk's mental breakdown and are not likely to recover much, especially since Tesla no longer really has a CEO.

saagarjha 2y ago
The stock seems to be unaware though
- SR2Z 2y ago
  The stock has certainly responded, although only time will tell if it'll return to a more sensible valuation. My guess is that this robotaxi launch will make or break the company. If the product looks like any other first-gen driverless service, Tesla is screwed. The price to upgrade all those older Teslas is gonna be gigantic and the company is already heavily scrutinized for their lackadaisical approach to QA and safety.
- floatrock 2y ago
  Stock is betting on VP Musk continuing to pull up the ladder for all the EV competitors. Tesla CEO Musk got his fed grants to build out his charger network, now it's time to make sure no one else does so his remains on top. Downvote if you must, but the man knows how to protect his moats while branding it "ending wasteful government spending".
  - onemoresoop 2y ago
    He may know some things, he got pretty far. But he seems to make some of the dumbest moves. While his 180 turn in politics may have got him closer to his power goals he alientated too many people who used to buy into his vision. Republicans don’t care about EVs or whatever Musk wants to sell them so it seems poorly though out…
  - tarsinge 2y ago
    But competitors are already here and as others have stated Tesla sales are free falling outside the US, at best that’ll only work for the US. Even in that best case I don’t think that market alone justify the stock valuation. But even in the US I don’t get what will be the Tesla mass demographics anymore.
- more_corn 2y ago
  Down 5% today 11.6% this week 14% this month The stock seems to be waking up to the problem. Sales are down 12% in Europe in Jan. Down 60% in Germany. Apparently German electric car drivers are not fans of Nazis. Who knew?
fshr 2y ago
To me it seems to have very little to do with his antics. Surely inflation, market saturation, and increased competition is more probable?
- youngtaff 2y ago
  EV sales are generally growing in Europe Tesla sales are static or shrinking Take January YoY in the UK, EV sales rose 24%, Tesla's sales dropped 8% ish
- whynotminot 2y ago
  He said “partly” — seems reasonable that throwing nazi salutes around might have a partial impact on declining sales?
  - penjelly 2y ago
    sales were trending down significantly in Europe even before the salute though.
    - onemoresoop 2y ago
      That doesn’t mean Musk’s gesture didn’t accelerate the downward trend. But I agree with the general sentiment. Overall Teslas can’t compete with other EV makers because as soon as there’s a real market Tesla isn’t that attractive anymore outside of a brand loyal niche. Musk appears to have lost his magic, or perhaps his mind too. Dude looks quite disheveled these days..
      - bdangubic 2y ago
        because as soon as there’s a real market Tesla isn’t that attractive anymore outside of a brand loyal niche. can't be further from the truth. if you drive tesla and then drive all of the competitors tesla is faaar superior car. cars are great. the core issue here are margins - before competition tesla's could retain the huge margins on their vehicles. feels like in order to compete now they will have to drop the prices and hence their margins and with the forward p/e ratio of 1,000,129 that won't go well for the company's financials. and of course elon being a tool isn't going to be helping with this :)
Geee 2y ago
This is not true. Tesla recently released new Model Y [0], and there's a gap in sales because of that transition. The old Model Y was the best selling car of any kind in 2024 globally. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA
- youngtaff 2y ago
  Looking at the 'best selling car' creates a distorted view Tesla's sales are spread over a few models, VW's EV sales are spread over ten or so models
- Zigurd 2y ago
  It's either "a new car" or the same model that accounts for nearly all Tesla sales making it "best selling" compared to makers with newer cars and a wider selection. So... which?
  - Geee 2y ago
    What? They updated Model Y, which has been the best selling car in 2023 and 2024.
ako 2y ago
I don’t think this is a mental breakdown instead he’s showing his real evil nature
blitzar 2y ago
I wish I could get paid $50bn to have a mental breakdown.
- ZeroGravitas 2y ago
  Pretty sure most people would have a mental breakdown if given 50 billion. Imagine if pretending to be your friend was basically a fortune 500 size industry.
- theGnuMe 2y ago
  I remember when we thought we could just pay Trump 1-2 billion to go away. That would've been a good deal and is cheap in retrospect. And maybe Biden should have pardoned him immediately to kick the can down the road on SCOTUS deciding to allow Presidential immunity.. It probably would've happened anyway but it would've given the project2025 and Thiel libertarians less time to organize.
  - ModernMech 2y ago
    Didn't work for Neville Chamberlain, I don't think it would have worked for us.
roomey 2y ago
Mental breakdown? No, he is greedy, this is greed. He is greedy for power and money. As Terry Pratchett alludes to many of his books, the problems start when you treat other people as "things". And this is rife at the moment. So mental breakdown doesn't really cover it.
- bdhcuidbebe 2y ago
  yea, his mental breakdown. Come on, you cannot have missed this. We started seeing signs of it when he called that diver rescuer a pedophile. Most recently its been him caught lying about him being the greatest gamer in the world and being one of his biggest fans (Adrian Dittman). And then high on ketamine doing that salute on the inaguration
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  Musk is the living embodiment of the ultra rich wet dream. Nazi salute (two actually) on national television? Destroy government extra legally with presidential pardon immunity? Bust on minorities etc with social impunity? He doesn't just have eff you money, he has eff you status. No longer being restricted to the milquetoast middle ground CEO trap. Unrestricted treatment of low money people as subhumans. nothing like rights or laws to get in the way. Thing is, his stock is very very tied to perception, which is a synonym for "hype". You can see this emerging unrestraint coming from virtually all of silicon valley "leadership". Allin podcast. Zuck the MMA wannabe. Larry Ellison (the archetype) in orbit with trump. Gleeful twitters about eliminating all jobs with AI. And yet we are entering an era of geopolitical uncertainty, war, reonshoring of manufacturing. To fight looming conflicts with China and Russia, what is needed is functioning institutional democracy, not venal banal oligarchical corruption. The other historical danger is that the rich poor gap is indicative of a forthcoming rebellion of the lower class. Trump is himself a symptom of this, and while the poor continue to divide themselves between the two parties, Trump shows that wild unpredictable swings in voter sentiment can bring unexpected candidates to the fore. All it takes is one charismatic candidate to pledge to cull the rich and being universal healthcare...
Zigurd 2y ago
Recent price declines have just knocked the froth off the top of what is still an extremely frothy stock. About 20X industry PE ratios. I could imagine 5X to be sustainable, but...

saagarjha 2y ago

The stock seems to be unaware though

SR2Z 2y ago
The stock has certainly responded, although only time will tell if it'll return to a more sensible valuation. My guess is that this robotaxi launch will make or break the company. If the product looks like any other first-gen driverless service, Tesla is screwed. The price to upgrade all those older Teslas is gonna be gigantic and the company is already heavily scrutinized for their lackadaisical approach to QA and safety.
floatrock 2y ago
Stock is betting on VP Musk continuing to pull up the ladder for all the EV competitors. Tesla CEO Musk got his fed grants to build out his charger network, now it's time to make sure no one else does so his remains on top. Downvote if you must, but the man knows how to protect his moats while branding it "ending wasteful government spending".
- onemoresoop 2y ago
  He may know some things, he got pretty far. But he seems to make some of the dumbest moves. While his 180 turn in politics may have got him closer to his power goals he alientated too many people who used to buy into his vision. Republicans don’t care about EVs or whatever Musk wants to sell them so it seems poorly though out…
- tarsinge 2y ago
  But competitors are already here and as others have stated Tesla sales are free falling outside the US, at best that’ll only work for the US. Even in that best case I don’t think that market alone justify the stock valuation. But even in the US I don’t get what will be the Tesla mass demographics anymore.
more_corn 2y ago
Down 5% today 11.6% this week 14% this month The stock seems to be waking up to the problem. Sales are down 12% in Europe in Jan. Down 60% in Germany. Apparently German electric car drivers are not fans of Nazis. Who knew?

fshr 2y ago

To me it seems to have very little to do with his antics. Surely inflation, market saturation, and increased competition is more probable?

youngtaff 2y ago
EV sales are generally growing in Europe Tesla sales are static or shrinking Take January YoY in the UK, EV sales rose 24%, Tesla's sales dropped 8% ish
whynotminot 2y ago
He said “partly” — seems reasonable that throwing nazi salutes around might have a partial impact on declining sales?
- penjelly 2y ago
  sales were trending down significantly in Europe even before the salute though.
  - onemoresoop 2y ago
    That doesn’t mean Musk’s gesture didn’t accelerate the downward trend. But I agree with the general sentiment. Overall Teslas can’t compete with other EV makers because as soon as there’s a real market Tesla isn’t that attractive anymore outside of a brand loyal niche. Musk appears to have lost his magic, or perhaps his mind too. Dude looks quite disheveled these days..
    - bdangubic 2y ago
      because as soon as there’s a real market Tesla isn’t that attractive anymore outside of a brand loyal niche. can't be further from the truth. if you drive tesla and then drive all of the competitors tesla is faaar superior car. cars are great. the core issue here are margins - before competition tesla's could retain the huge margins on their vehicles. feels like in order to compete now they will have to drop the prices and hence their margins and with the forward p/e ratio of 1,000,129 that won't go well for the company's financials. and of course elon being a tool isn't going to be helping with this :)

Geee 2y ago

This is not true. Tesla recently released new Model Y [0], and there's a gap in sales because of that transition. The old Model Y was the best selling car of any kind in 2024 globally. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA

youngtaff 2y ago
Looking at the 'best selling car' creates a distorted view Tesla's sales are spread over a few models, VW's EV sales are spread over ten or so models
Zigurd 2y ago
It's either "a new car" or the same model that accounts for nearly all Tesla sales making it "best selling" compared to makers with newer cars and a wider selection. So... which?
- Geee 2y ago
  What? They updated Model Y, which has been the best selling car in 2023 and 2024.

ako 2y ago

I don’t think this is a mental breakdown instead he’s showing his real evil nature

blitzar 2y ago

I wish I could get paid $50bn to have a mental breakdown.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago
Pretty sure most people would have a mental breakdown if given 50 billion. Imagine if pretending to be your friend was basically a fortune 500 size industry.
theGnuMe 2y ago
I remember when we thought we could just pay Trump 1-2 billion to go away. That would've been a good deal and is cheap in retrospect. And maybe Biden should have pardoned him immediately to kick the can down the road on SCOTUS deciding to allow Presidential immunity.. It probably would've happened anyway but it would've given the project2025 and Thiel libertarians less time to organize.
- ModernMech 2y ago
  Didn't work for Neville Chamberlain, I don't think it would have worked for us.

roomey 2y ago

Mental breakdown? No, he is greedy, this is greed. He is greedy for power and money. As Terry Pratchett alludes to many of his books, the problems start when you treat other people as "things". And this is rife at the moment. So mental breakdown doesn't really cover it.

bdhcuidbebe 2y ago
yea, his mental breakdown. Come on, you cannot have missed this. We started seeing signs of it when he called that diver rescuer a pedophile. Most recently its been him caught lying about him being the greatest gamer in the world and being one of his biggest fans (Adrian Dittman). And then high on ketamine doing that salute on the inaguration
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
Musk is the living embodiment of the ultra rich wet dream. Nazi salute (two actually) on national television? Destroy government extra legally with presidential pardon immunity? Bust on minorities etc with social impunity? He doesn't just have eff you money, he has eff you status. No longer being restricted to the milquetoast middle ground CEO trap. Unrestricted treatment of low money people as subhumans. nothing like rights or laws to get in the way. Thing is, his stock is very very tied to perception, which is a synonym for "hype". You can see this emerging unrestraint coming from virtually all of silicon valley "leadership". Allin podcast. Zuck the MMA wannabe. Larry Ellison (the archetype) in orbit with trump. Gleeful twitters about eliminating all jobs with AI. And yet we are entering an era of geopolitical uncertainty, war, reonshoring of manufacturing. To fight looming conflicts with China and Russia, what is needed is functioning institutional democracy, not venal banal oligarchical corruption. The other historical danger is that the rich poor gap is indicative of a forthcoming rebellion of the lower class. Trump is himself a symptom of this, and while the poor continue to divide themselves between the two parties, Trump shows that wild unpredictable swings in voter sentiment can bring unexpected candidates to the fore. All it takes is one charismatic candidate to pledge to cull the rich and being universal healthcare...

Zigurd 2y ago

Recent price declines have just knocked the froth off the top of what is still an extremely frothy stock. About 20X industry PE ratios. I could imagine 5X to be sustainable, but...