'Problem for Tesla': Dems flee automaker over Musk’s Trump endorsement
'Problem for Tesla': Dems flee automaker over Musk’s Trump endorsement
Earlier this year, Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk promised he wouldn't be giving any money to either Donald Trump or Joe Biden.Musk sounded adamant, tweeting, on March 6, "Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for U.S. President."But Musk later changed his mind, reportedly d...
But Musk later changed his mind, reportedly donating $45 million a month of his money to the pro-Trump political action committee American PAC.
`Nuff said. CEOs are often Republican, but to be this outspokenly political is normally a bad thing for CEOs like Musk. Media company heads (and Twitter/X is a media company) are supposed to at least pretend to be neutral.
And catering to the far-right seems like a bad idea if your company makes EVs. But what do I know?
Maybe this means that all the Republicans will buy electric cars now to own the libs.
Man, I'd feel soooo owned if they did that. Ugh, what if they all went out and got solar, too? Then we'd really be fucked. What are we, if not a bunch of electric car driving, latte drinking, solar panel punks? At least we'd still have the lattes, I guess.
You joke but there's a company right now selling solar power "own the libs who control the power boards."
It's a step in the right direction, I guess.
Arugula! Free tan suit with every bunch of arugula! Come ‘n get ‘em!
Tesla is synonymous with Musk, which disqualifies it for consideration when purchasing an EV.
Around 9 years ago I very much wanted a Tesla and thought Musk was a genius. All he had to do to keep everyone thinking that was shut up.
Yeah. Tesla was a status symbol, and Musk has put in long hard extra hours of work to convert it into a shitty status symbol.
For folks out there that Musk hasn't personally offended, I suspect they've got to be at least mildly aware that it's more a matter of "when" than "if", at this point.
Tesla will go bankcrupt in five years, unless they toss Musk out. He will do some stupid shit that will crash the whole company, like endorsing a political candidate who is talking of making EV's illegal.
I’m a Democrat and a Tesla owner. No way in Hell will I buy another Tesla as long as Musk is involved in any way with the company. It would actually take a significant overhaul of both the company and their cars to convince me to buy another one.
I would sell it before Musk decides to find a list of all democratic supporters and start screwing up their cars out of pettyness. And let's not even pretend for one second the man child wouldn't do that.
Or release real-time, geographic info on democrat Tesla drivers to right-wing militia groups to take care of. I don't think he'd just let shit go. Look at the Elon plane account for a digital representation.
Same
Same here. Technologically they're being surpassed and quality wise, well from what I can tell from looking at these newer model 3's that people at work have been buying, has not improved at all. Plus being a absolute public fascist? Yeah, I'll buy my next EV from another manufacturer thanks.
That's the kind of smart CEO behavior that justifies his almost $45B+ compensation package. /s
Remember years ago when people said - out loud, ostensibly seriously - he’s a genius? I think all those people need to be kicked in the ass.
He “endorsed” Trump. LOL. That’s a chump, not a genius.
How do Trump's policies affect him?
Not saying he's a genius, but everything Trump is promoting benefits Musk.
Yeah, like talking of making EV's illegal.
Well maybe not illegal, but more expensive
Yeah, like I needed another reason to never buy another Tesla again. Good luck getting Republicans to buy an EV much less a EV that's technology is no longer cutting edge and the quality is horrible by any standard.
Us regular people cannot comprehend the 4D chess moves of a genius like Musk. Or maybe he just took too many drugs.
The reason to not buy a Tesla is that now they are simply bad cars, and there's too many good pure electric options to even consider a Tesla nowadays.
Tech wise, a Lucid Air blows a Tesla out of the water.
Driving wise, a Porsche Taycan handles like a Porsche, a Tesla handles like a Camry.
There are way too many other examples to list.
Camry won't just fall apart though. Someone I know also came out entirely unscathed after decimating both his camry and a semi with loaded double trailer. The thing even still drove and he was able to get it off the road but one wheel was bent up and off the ground. I doubt a Tesla of any generation can do that. From what I remember gen one at least didn't seem very camry like either. I had this feeling like something was off even though the mad force of accelerating was pretty impressive.
Birds of a child rapists flock together.
Over the Trump endorsement? They hadn't already fled over gestures broadly
TSLA has sold fewer cars this year despite dropping prices and enticing customers with 0% financing. Not just Q2 (most recent data), but also Q1.
It will be a few weeks before the Trump Endorsement truly is felt, but I'm wondering if Elon has pissed off Democrats enough to the point where they are selling Tesla cars and buying new cars. But Democrats were already clearly no longer buying the car this year.
You mean the 4% drop that happened after the ginormous 27% bump that happened, basically resetting their price to where they were a few months ago? I'm sure musk is hurting real bad. Articles like this just infuriate me.
Tesla stock has never been based on any real metrics or logic. It'll be interesting to see sales over the next quarter.
Most of the stock market growth is due to things like buybacks.
Tesla's down overall for the year. I agree its still comically overvalued. But big investment firms and hedge funds are still more than willing to prop it up, seemingly indefinitely. This isn't liberal democrats fleeing the brand, because liberal democrats aren't the ones doing all the HFT.
I bet Trump and MAGA love EVs now
This whole thing seems like a sleight of hand to me. I’m pretty sure people are fleeing Tesla because their manufacturing standards are garbage, and their software is faulty. Cybertruck looks like a child’s first truck drawing was the design basis, it doesn’t even do basic truck things, and if you aren’t careful it can decapitate you or at least take off some fingers.
But sure, it’s because Muskrat, emerald mine offspring, finally endorsed Trump that is the determining factor for these people?! Ok, I guess.
Not for me. I genuinely love almost everything about my Model 3 Tesla which I've had for years. It's a pleasure to drive. But I'll never buy another Tesla because of Musk.
Except Tesla always had shitty manufacturing and faulty software.
The difference accelerated after Elon Musk bought Twitter and revealed himself to be a right-wing asshole. (Some would argue that everyone should have known that Musk was always right-wing, but... the cultural zeitgeist never really noticed until after the Twitter purchase).
Gee... the capitalists liberals have been bending over backwards for all this time is overtly turning towards fascism, you say?
If only someone could have predicted this!
He ran away faster, hahahaha
I'm surprised how quickly he turned around. Is Musk clinically bipolar?
I'm wondering what backroom discussions happened. Maybe Elon noticed that no Republican actually likes him or what he does. Well, Musk still is spending money to some degree on Republicans for this cycle, but he's no longer embracing Trump as much as he did this past weekend?
Or maybe Musk's attention changed and he's already moved onto the next controversy.
Also BYD makes better EVs anyways. Luckily for him though the US is one of the most access-restricted car markets, so he is safe from better competition.
I travel to the Middle East often and every time I am more impressed by the Chinese cars being sold there.
And catering to the far-right seems like a bad idea if your company makes EVs. But what do I know?
yet tesla's are still highly coveted status symbols somehow
Tesla sales are down dude, despite Tesla offering the lowest prices, cheapest deals and best financing in years.
Lower prices, fewer sales despite EV market growing (more EVs were sold this year than ever before, despite Tesla losing sales numbers). The used market for Tesla is collapsing, especially as Hertz sells thousands of vehicles at far below market price trying to recoup whatever they can from the auction market.
I don't think they are anymore. There are more options in the market now than there were four years ago, Teslas tend to be expensive for what you get, and the quality of Tesla has been demonstrated to be terrible, time after time. I think that the biggest thing that's working in Tesla's favor right now is availability; if other fully electric cars were as available as Teslas are, he'd probably see the bottom fall out of his market completely.
As it is, Dems in general are more likely to be interested in electric vehicles, and he's actively pissing them off. That's a very bad business decision, if you want to keep having a company.
if other fully electric cars were as available as Teslas are, he’d probably see the bottom fall out of his market completely.
other fully electric cars are already available and dominating across the entire planet except for the united states and canada and the price tag for a competitive model is around $20k; so i suspect tesla is going to stay king so long as both republicans and democrats continue to support 100% tarrifs on EV's.
given how we bail out the big american car companies with no-strings-attached handouts every decade and a half or so and we're about to do it again; it's a sure bet to assume tesla is safe for a long time.
They WERE maybe 5 years ago. All good will died with Musk taking over.
Musk has been there since the early days. The company was founded in July 2003. Musk joined as an early (and majority) investor in February 2004. He became CEO in 2008.
5 years ago is about right for when Musk started losing it, but he was at Tesla long before that.
Are they? Maybe something like an S Plaid or a Cybertruck, but the Tesla name is synonymous with those fuckhuge ugly wagon models you see everywhere on the road these days. Even absent of Musk's connection to the brand, I haven't seen a Tesla be considered a status symbol in years
By who?
Tesla cars have always been tin cans on wheels with QC problems. Now they are tin cans on wheels with QC issues that also double as MAGA hats.
i need & want an EV that can do 90% of what a tesla can do but for 25% the price at $11k; the rest of the world gets them, but not the united states and canada thanks to the 100% tariff on EV's