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

snip: Mod Discussion via PM

Interesting stuff there alright. Mostly in America is what I'm reading there, Germans camped out in trees by comparison

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-police-clear-protest-site-tesla-gigafactory-2024-11-19/

It's pretty much a drop in the ocean in terms of Irish sales versus the rest of Europe.

I'm not sure what relevance it has to the topic.

Wasn't the problem in Adamstown that the parking spaces were communal and not individually owned?

Eventually like so many Chinese cities charging points will become as ubiquitous as parking meters once were.

Back on topic I'm starting to believe Elon's antic have hurt sales in Europe because of the strict taboo and legal consequences of a Roman type salute, but in China I think they're mostly losing ground to the competition. I had a look at a video about that Xioami Su7 and I can see products like that turning heads all around the world.

The share price is only rising because either Musk asked Trump to endorse Tesla, or Trump felt bad for Elon losing so much of his net worth as the share price plummeted, so he decided to do his master a favour. Trump idolises men far richer than himself.

While Trumps pathetic car salesman shilling act did provide a temporary share price boost, his alignment with Tesla will alienate more potential customers and returning buyers in my opinion. Because as we know, most businesses Trump aligns himself with usually performs poorly, or fails.

Even JP Morgan's analysts lowered their targets of where they think the stock should trade, from $135 to $120.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/jpmorgan-cuts-price-target-tesla-shares-brokerage-expects-lower-deliveries-2025-03-12/

Tesla CFO said at the last earnings call that tariffs will impact Tesla profitability. Next earnings call will be interesting.

Musk said in a recent interview that it's incredibly difficult to run all his businesses, and being involved with DOGE. This should sound alarm bells to any investor.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/musk-says-juggling-doge-ceo-jobs-is-difficult-tesla-shares-slump-2025-03-10/

The point about Tesla sales increasing in Ireland is that among the buying population in this country the sentiment towards Musk or Trump is not strong enough to put them off acquiring a new Tesla.

There is a lot of shouting into the wind going on however, and plenty of people who couldn't give two hoots what's happening a long way away from here.

I think the Nazis called it the roman salute as they saw themselves as the third incarnation of the holy Roman empire, the third Reich.

Plus I think they were copying Mussolini s fascist salute which been around earlier.

The Nazi's officially referred to it as Hitlergruß(Hitler Salute), but also Deutscher Gruß. Yes Hitler and the Nazi's adopted it from their friend - Mussolini - but he's not a lad you'd want to align your views with condidering he was responsible for 1000's of politically motivated assasinations to consolidate power, and responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths due to his wars.

It's a pathetic attempt to defend and apologise for Musk's behaviour.

I've a model 3 that I will be handing back most likely at the end of the pcp. When I bought it I simply didn't like Musk. Now hate him, mad how there is people defending him on here when he is actively taking part in destabilising our economy and security. Openly attacking the eu and part of that is our workers rights. He wants a world where the normal man/woman's lives are worse.

You can tell me all you want from crazy sources but actions speak louder than words.

I think it works against some saying tesla are terrible cars just becuase musk is. I dont see that here but you do on social media often. They simply aren't terrible in my experience.

Thankfully there are competing cars in terms of price and spec that can match or better them so there are options out there for those who would rather go a different direction.

Not sure what you are on about but I know Musk would like to be able to sack any worker on a whim. That is not possible in the eu and he doesn't like it. Again, his actions show this.

Mental how someone who presumably lives and works in the eu is backing this kind of thing. What do you think this man is going to do for you and your family over what the eu has done?

You can't fire workers on a whim that's why he ended up facing a load of legal cases in Europe over such firings... You'll say you admire his stance on free speech but he's weirdly silent about the US currently trying to deport a Palestinian on a green card who protested. He's egging on a regime that wants to be authoritarian.

Also makes lots of sense that Europe is concerned about defense, particularly since Musk keeps threatening leaving NATO...

You can fire people on a whim, taking a legal case doesn’t change the fact you're fired.

Foreigners were warned about protesting for what’s viewed as a terrorist location by some countries. That wasn’t Musk though. Is he banned from X, doubt it. Is Musk obliged to reply or like his posts, nope.

Musk can’t leave NATO, he’s got an opinion and you’re free to tell him where to shove it if that suits you.

Is Musk flying the rocket? Did he personally design and test it? No. Musk is not rescuing anyone, the people who built and fly the rocket for him are. He may be paying for it to happen but that does not mean he is "rescuing them".

Also his stance on free speech like your own is absolute garbage its simply freedom from consequences nothing more and has absolutely nothing to do with actual free speech which he has proven time and again by censoring people on his own platform whos views and opinions he doesn't like.

I don't like Musk, I don't admire Musk, I share no values in common with Musk, and I wish he wasn't CEO of Tesla.

But I can separate the product from the company of which he is just the CEO, and recognise the cars for what they have done to advance the cause of EV adoption globally. Setting a performance and design trend now picked up by dozens of manufacturers around the world. Tesla's provenance, model evolution, charging infrastructure, minimalist design, and direct to consumer sales model pre-dated Elon Musk.

They make utterly brilliant electric vehicles at a price point that would have been unimaginable a decade ago, and they have played a huge role in developing a niche space into a mainstream space and forced big-hitting legacy vehicle builders to revisit the way they produce and sell cars. The design and AI talent at Tesla leads the market, indeed outside the vehicle market. Musk's relentless narcissism appears to have allowed the company ride out challenges that might have sunk a less ego-driven company leader, which overall has been a benefit to the industry as a whole, and while that has been good for the company, I think the lad is now a dangerous twat, and has gone round the bend in the last 9 or 10 months following his association with Trump and MAGA.

The cars his company makes are fabulous, and will be there long after his tenure ends, which hopefully is sooner than later, allowing Tesla to achieve some kind of maturity.