3mo ago

It's Elon Musk's turn for a 'fork in the road' as Tesla faces Wall Street scrutiny

www.nbcnews.com

It might be time for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s own fork in the road.

The electric carmaker is set to report quarterly earnings Tuesday afternoon that may say a lot about which direction Musk and the company he has ridden to immense wealth will go next.

The company will update investors on revenue, profit and other key figures after months of turmoil as Musk continues to dedicate a large portion of his time to the Trump administration’s attempt to radically remake the federal government, far away from his corporate responsibilities at Tesla, SpaceX and his other companies.

With Tesla’s stock and brand reputation getting pummeled — and with Trump’s tariff policy threatening to upend the automotive market, Tesla included — many Tesla investors have called on Musk to scale back or end his government work entirely and return his focus to business.

41 comments

With Tesla’s stock and brand reputation getting pummeled ... many Tesla investors have called on Musk to scale back or end his government work entirely and return his focus to business
As long as he's associated with Tesla, even if he steps out of government work, the damage is done. Even if the board boots him as CEO, it's going to take a LOT of work, PR, outreach, and time to undo the stink Musk has left on the company.
- Never forgive Tesla
  
  Not in this lifetime for me, though the world has generally forgiven the auto brands who helped run the Axis Powers war machine like BMW, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, etc.
  Tesla could do a complete about-face, oust Musk and his cronies, start adhering to better market practices, and build themselves back up as a reputable brand. But not for a long while.
  Better that there actually be a better path to take which could lead somewhere in the future, otherwise they may as well double down on his stupidity and profit while they can before the whole company just implodes.
  
  Hey, now. Nikola Tesla did nothing wrong.
  
  Companies aren't sentient beings
- They'll probably just retire the brand, slap on a new name and logo and keep business as usual and just have Muskrat in the background like some sort of evil wizard, like Saruman casting spells from his dark cave and collecting money
  
  Boot musk
  Stop all cyber bullshit that reeks of him
  Redesign the cars and the brand
  VW managed to transition from nazi image to hippies.
  
  Saruman at least had charisma and was a badass. Musk is more of a Wormtongue type.
- And their valuation will go in the crapper. musk IS Tesla. Without him, how do you rationalize that insane P/E?
Is Elon going to pretend he's not a nazi with a breeding cult when he "gets out of government?" Big doubts on convincing shareholders they want cars that fall apart and are synonymous with nazis and mass, AI generated firing programs.
- Ikr, like if the only problem is that he has no time to be Tesla's CEO and "getting out of government" would solve things.
- Pretty sure when they say 'end his government work they actulu mean 'shut the fuck up and stay out of the news'
Serious question: With a gutted SEC, a corrupt supreme court and a Presidential pardon presumably in the wings, what's stopping Tesla from just lying like all fuck on their quarterly reports?
US securities fraud was rampant at the best of times. Now, I have not the words to describe what is being done.
- Maybe President Musk can just tell secretary Trump to pull some strings and make sure his best buddies at the courts turn a blind eye to all of these shenanigans.
- They're literally making up mileage numbers to commit warranty fraud and trying to scam ev incentives from the Canadian government. There is zero chance Tesla's sales and revenue numbers are accurate.
I hope Elon can navigate forks in the road better than the cars from his company can
- My guess is he’ll run head first into a wall. Meep meep.
That's not enough.
It doesn't matter if Musk stops his MAGA antics overnight; as long as this disgusting South African Nazi owns even one share of Tesla, I ain't buying a car for them.
If Tesla ever wants me to even consider one of their vehicles, they have to ditch the sumbitch.
Time for Elon to get forked.
Fork Elon
- Lets get a fork of Elon before he went crazy and was just another angel investor?
Tesla would be smart to split up their product line into into different corporations and block Musk from involvement.
Their supercharger network is big enough that it could be its own company, especially now that other non-Tesla vehicles can charge at them. It’s basically the EV version of an international gas station chain at this point.
Their Powerwall & Megapack solutions are also a separate product line that could be spun off (along with whatever solar products they have).
When most people think of Tesla these days they mostly think of the cars, and Musks association with it has clearly caused significant harm to that product line. By rebranding the supercharger network and storage business and removing any association with Musk they at least have a chance to see those products succeed without the negative stigma he brings.
I do think it’s too late for the Tesla EV’s though, unless the Tesla board of directors makes major leadership changes. And I don’t see that happening any time soon.
It seems as though the greatest enhancement of efficiency for the sake of value Tesla could do is get rid of Musk. That would be some beautiful poetry, but we don't live in the good timeline where karma is real. We live in the timeline where the villain always wins. :/
- Either he keeps being himself and the stock tanks or he leaves Tesla and the stock tanks. Tesla loses either way.

41 comments