Alienating Tesla Patrons by the Cybertruck-load

April 22, 2024

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Again in December 2022, I hypothesized that Elon Musk’s antics and his newfound want to personal the Libs had been going to destroy Tesla’s attraction to a lot of his most essential consumers.

The most recent knowledge confirms these sentiments had been on level.

I checked out 2020 voting knowledge and TSLA registrations in counties all through the state of New York, and theorized as follows:

Watching Musk’s ongoing antics, it has change into very clear to me that his actions should not solely destroying Twitter, however the collateral harm is taking Tesla down with it – a veritable twofer of ineptitude and rake-stepping. […]

My thesis is that in Musk’s newfound want to personal the Libs, he’s alienating the very individuals who have overwhelmingly been consumers of his EVs.

Contemplate who the standard Tesla purchaser has been over the last decade earlier than he started to personal the Libs: You’d describe them as individuals who don’t suppose world warming is a hoax; they’re early adopters, keen to pay extra for an EV versus an ICE automotive. Pretty much as good as Tesla’s supercharging community is, it’s nowhere close to the infrastructure buildout of gasoline autos, it could possibly nonetheless be inconvenient on 300+ mile journeys; though to be truthful, ICE infrastructure has had a century head begin. These of us wish to depart a greater world to their children; they’re realists in regards to the risks introduced by local weather change, they usually suppose people could make a distinction through their private decisions. Oh, they usually consider in science.

It isn’t that this group is solely Democrats, however draw a Venn diagram with the parents I described above and Dems, and the overlap is important.

Now comes the Wall St. Journal with the headline: Elon Musk Misplaced Democrats on Tesla When He Wanted Them Most

The proportion of Democrats shopping for Tesla autos fell by greater than 60%, in line with automotive consumers surveyed in October and November by researcher Strategic Imaginative and prescient.

I’m not one who’s sometimes inclined to take a victory lap, however this one feels prefer it was so apparent to see coming by bringing collectively knowledge from very disparate sources and nailed the eventual end result.

In case your politics places you on the other aspect of the NYT/Paul Krugman, how do you reconcile that now Murdoch’s WSJ has come to just accept this relaity as properly…?

BR provides: What makes this so perplexing is what an unforced error this has been. Musk moved your entire auto business in direction of electrical, he had amassed huge goodwill and had a built-in buyer base that was very loyal. All he needed to do was not screw it up, which — apparently — was a bridge too far.

At its peak, TSLA was price $1.29 trillion; immediately, it’s $448.9 billion:

That may be a 65% lower in market cap + value:

After all, there may be way more competitors immediately, and Tesla’s designs are getting previous, and searching just a little stale. Their large decade-long software program benefit is now most likely someplace within the 2 -4 yr vary.

A minimum of it should make for a captivating HBS case research sooner or later…

Supply:
Elon Musk Misplaced Democrats on Tesla When He Wanted Them Most
Tim Higgins
WSJ, April 20, 2024

Easy methods to Destroy a Model, Musk Fashion
Paul Krugman
NYT, Dec. 30, 2022