this is the kind of stuff tesla is great at pioneering. i hope they can de-elon (delon?) - i know that's a long, long, long shot - and continue pushing the industry forward.
My take is:
1. BYD will soon own the rest of the world, but Tesla can still own America IF they're willing to innovate because we're not letting them in anytime soon. I don't know how the international market will respond long-term with the current perception of America & Musk. Reputation matters a LOT in the car market (re:
Jaguar).
2. I think if Elon publicly apologized, that would go a long way to improving customer relations, at least at the market level. If he left Tesla altogether, that would be huge as well. However, TSLA is a meme stock that relies on showmanship & the board relies on Elon to make money. Tesla stock is still
vastly over-valued even at $315 & Elon is back to $400+ billion post-DOGE departure, so the incentive just isn't there because no one wants to give up power.
3. I think the Cybertruck is permanently cooked. I cancelled my reservation (go Slate go!! lol) & am sad about it because I still think it's a pretty neat vehicle! CNN covered the
whole debacle well. Elon's net worth growth is estimated to be around $600 million per day, so even if they spent $4 billion on the factory (
$1.1b), parts, and, and labor , that's like, a
week of interest for him lol. My take here is that if Elon does a political apology & then releases v2 of the Cybertruck with a meatier look, bigger battery, fixed all the teething issues, eATV, etc. it could
probably work, but I just don't see a comeback story happening here tbh.
4. Tesla needs to admit defeat on the camera-only FSD narrative & adopt LIDAR. imo this & AI would allow them to
own the ride-sharing market because of vertical integration:
a. US-made vehicles
b. Make the cars
c. Make the batteries
d. Grok xAI
e. Starlink Internet coverage for connected vehicle features
It's dicey because:
1. The current administration is not green-friendly (EV, solar, house batteries, etc.)
2. The competition has gotten QUITE good! Kia of all companies is knocking it out of the EV park. I'd be perfectly happy with a Lightning or Mach-E as they're both fabulous vehicles!
3. They are sort of locked into their current designs. There
might be a new, smaller design. The fact that you can buy an electric VW bus or 3-row IONIQ 9 SUV is pretty cool!
The point is, there ARE things they could do to improve, but it has to start at the leadership level. I mean, imagine if Elon made things right with the public, adopted LIDAR, released a $25k baby Tesla & then the Roadstar 2.0, & Semi, and then dropped a 620-mile Cybertruck 2.0 with a plastic-panel redesign & eATV option. Not that hard to course-correct & make a HUGE impact on the market!! Because honestly, I'd
totally drop $12k on a DeepSeek BYD EV if they were available stateside, haha!
