Is Elon Musk hurting Tesla? (Mod Note Post #1)

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123326835#Comment_123326835

one thing that’s an absolute certainly - when all this doge and democracy-interference stuff goes t1ts up, it’s musk who will take the fall. Trump is elected, like it or not. He has effective immunity for the 4 year term.

Fast forward 20 years, it’s hard to see musk ever bring viewed any differently than he is today. It’s a lifetime of polarising hate, and all while awkwardly just wanting to be liked.

cnocbui

Lol.

Supposedly the fall in sales in Sweden:

Here's the TeZla losing ground in Sweden this March 2025:

ModelY: -61.9%

Model 3: -70%

Model S: -94%

magicbastarder

…

..

romperstomper

As title, Tesla sales figures are down and according to the FT it is affecting the used prices of Teslas due to less demand. Does this mean that Tesla, and only Tesla, become more affordable in Ireland? Or is the Irish market too small to for this trend to impact it?

https://www.ft.com/content/07f90b17-6348-40f0-bd45-15e48b82b827

(Future EV buyer looking for a better deal)

MightyMunster

Tesla sales were up in Ireland in Q1 despite the best selling car in the world from 2023 and 2024 not being available

the_amazing_raisin

It's anyone's guess really, Tesla sales were up in Ireland this quarter and historically Irish buyers don't mix politics and spending

However the sales in Ireland won't be enough to offset the drops elsewhere, so there may be a price decrease happening

Not to put too much negativity on it but some of the owners here have complained about getting abuse recently for driving around in a Tesla. This might extend to outright vandalism

I don't agree with it personally, I think it's better to attack the CEO rather than the customers. However I think anyone buying this year would be pretty blind if they didn't see how the CEO is a controversial figure and that's spreading to the brand

NattyO

If prices come down, it's probably a good idea to take advantage if you're in the EV market, as it won't last - with talk of Elon stepping down from Doge, the crazies will move on to whatever the next thing they're told to be enraged about is, and the whole Tesla thing will be quickly forgotten about.

crl84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337703#Comment_123337703

Lol, hardly. Buyers in Europe and elsewhere don't really care about DOGE. The stench of Elon, his views, and his actions, will continue to taint Tesla cars and will not suddenly increase their prices, whether he's pretending to reduce US public sector inefficiencies with bogus facts and lies, or not.

NattyO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337776#Comment_123337776

OK, some of the crazies. Most probably, but evidently not all.

ddcluracan

Elon dropped the PR department of Tesla a long time ago. Like it or not his public image is indelibly linked to Tesla's image. It's unfair on their employees but their brand is turning toxic. In addition their cars despite the refresh are no longer leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

But yes there may be a good deal to be had if you can hold your nose. :-)

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337602#Comment_123337602

they’re 1% of the overall Irish market - it’s in the noise level really, considering the disproportionate coverage they get.

The m3 highland is the best car on the market, EV or otherwise, imho - they should be selling significantly more of it than they do. Therein lies the problem.

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123340191#Comment_123340191

isn’t that down more to their sales process than anything, I’m pretty sure if they had a network of dealers they’d sell buckets more, they’ve only 2 garages in the county, if they set up another few it would make a huge difference to sales. You can only do so much with an online only strategy.

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123340490#Comment_123340490

ultimately the online only strategy will need to change - simply because under the current model Tesla don’t want to ever see their cars again once they are delivered brand new.
it works while people are on their first one and keep it 3-5 years, but overwhelming people don’t like selling their own car privately. If we did, we’d all be doing it

Just 12% of the cars on donedeal valued over €10k are private, 88% dealers.

MightyMunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123340191#Comment_123340191

Yeah similar numbers to Mazda, Volvo, Lexus, Citroen, Cupra, Seat, Opel, Mercedes, Suzuki etc ... When comparing total sales. Are they all just noise level as well, what a funny statement. Tesla had 1/6 of EV sales last year which is hardly insignificant.

That's a higher percentage of EVs than Toyota had of the overall market for comparison. Are Toyota an insignificant noise in the ICE market?

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123340840#Comment_123340840

my point was simply that statistically, a rise in Tesla sales represents 43 buying decisions, and that they are the 20th most popular car manufacturer in Ireland this year.

It wasn’t a pro or anti Tesla comment at all, just that 43 buying decisions is a statistical noise level.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337899#Comment_123337899

Ireland is in an awkward situation in that we are the biggest right hand drive nation in the EU, a collective of left hand drive nations. Prices of new and second hand cars are generally higher here as a result

With Tesla they are much more transparent with their pricing and as far as I can tell sell new cars for the same price as they do in other EU countries. This has the knock on effect of them being cheaper than the likes of VW here. This means the price is much higher second hand

In short, unless you're buying new I'd not bother with a Tesla

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123342706#Comment_123342706

That's proably not the reason, there's 11,543 VW for sale while there's only 191 Tesal, supply and demand is dicating prices, i'm not sure how you can claim buying new is the only option worth considering.

The UK/NI is also right hand drive and cars can be sourced from the north VRT free.

Used prices will drop as supply increases, that could take another couple of years though. The model 3 is one of the most in demand used cars in the UK.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123343037#Comment_123343037

Tesla cars hold their value better than most others do. Regardless of the reason behind this it makes more sense to buy it new than pre-owned

Why Teslas hold their value better is only speculation on my part

yagan

Thought I'd give this thread a bump as quarterly earnings for Tesla due out today.

DrPsychia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123379801#Comment_123379801

I wouldn't be surprised if the stock price rises despite a bad earnings call.
Dan Ives be like "Tesla earnings call was bad, but not as bad as expected, I'm bullish".
Then there's the added news of Elon potentially leaving politics, so investors will pray that he'll be a super serious, hard working and involved full-time CEO again.

magicbastarder

https://futurism.com/tesla-engineer-elon-musk-deport-team-safety

...

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123380301#Comment_123380301

How many of the remaining engineers are keeping their mouths shut about the problems they see.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123310816#Comment_123310816

I tried to take out starlink with my catapult but failed

DrPsychia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123380557#Comment_123380557

It's likely a not so insignificant chunk of Tesla enginners are Elon sycophants, especally on the software development side of things. The likes of 'Big Balls' comes to mind, fairly young talented engineers that he can mould into his manosphere.

The other weird thing is the draw or attraction of being in relatively close proximity to a man of unimaginable wealth like Elon, because he generally had close oversight of those divisions. If you do a good job and kiss his hole for long enough it could open valuable doors.

yagan

Sales for the quarter down 9% on the same quarter last year.

DrPsychia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123381083#Comment_123381083

Revenues yes, down 9%. Total car sales down 20%.

Net income plummeted 71% to $409 million, or 12 cents a share, from $1.39 billion or 41 cents a year ago.

SchrodingersCat

The quarterly results are a train-wreck.
But the silver lining is the news that the company will be getting more time with its CEO back like it should.

dloob

2.1% Operating margin LOL.

Hope nobody puts tariffs on any of the materials they need.

PixelCrafter

In terms of public relations, he's far too late. The band is now very toxic and personally associated with him. I don't think there's any real way of undoing that at this stage. Damage is done.

He's only partially stepping away from DOGE and I have no doubt he won't be able to keep himself off X/Twitter, so it will just continue to roll on.

pjdarcy

Musk talking nonsense on the earnings call yesterday as usual. "There will be millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year". Really Elon, really?

This lad is the king of over-promising and under-delivering. How do investors still buy any of his outlandish claims?