'Problem for Tesla': Dems flee automaker over Musk’s Trump endorsement
'Problem for Tesla': Dems flee automaker over Musk’s Trump endorsement
Earlier this year, Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk promised he wouldn't be giving any money to either Donald Trump or Joe Biden.Musk sounded adamant, tweeting, on March 6, "Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for U.S. President."But Musk later changed his mind, reportedly d...
But Musk later changed his mind, reportedly donating $45 million a month of his money to the pro-Trump political action committee American PAC.
`Nuff said. CEOs are often Republican, but to be this outspokenly political is normally a bad thing for CEOs like Musk. Media company heads (and Twitter/X is a media company) are supposed to at least pretend to be neutral.
And catering to the far-right seems like a bad idea if your company makes EVs. But what do I know?
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And catering to the far-right seems like a bad idea if your company makes EVs. But what do I know?
yet tesla's are still highly coveted status symbols somehow
Tesla sales are down dude, despite Tesla offering the lowest prices, cheapest deals and best financing in years.
Lower prices, fewer sales despite EV market growing (more EVs were sold this year than ever before, despite Tesla losing sales numbers). The used market for Tesla is collapsing, especially as Hertz sells thousands of vehicles at far below market price trying to recoup whatever they can from the auction market.
i don't doubt that sales are down; i'm trying to understand how they're still so coveted all over social media.
Who owns the social media that you're looking at?
Spoiler: Its some tech-bro who owns the media, isn't it? Well... hopefully that answers that question.
In car circles, Toyota / Hondas are the most coveted cars for their reliability and drivability. Alternatively, American car buyers have weird metrics (like Jeep's offroading capabilities, Hummer's shear size, Truck's capabilities and all that).
Truck owners laugh at how Cybertruck gets stuck. Econobox / Toyota fans laugh at the terrible reliability and large number of issues found by Consumer Reports / JD Power. The only raw-stat that anyone can seriously praise for Tesla is 0-to-60 time, but even then car enthusiasts are keen on the 5-60 times that Tesla actually publishes and see Tesla as dirty cheaters.
The only people who think that Teslas are cool are Tech-bros, who are overrepresented in social media.
If you actually look at the numbers (ex: sales, price, or other real metrics), its clear that Tesla's reputation has tanked this year.
I have a 2001 Honda Civic. I refuse to stop driving it until the motor gives out. At this point, I think it might outlive me.
If you keep up with maintenance, including all fluids, it just might. Uncle had a tiny Toyota truck, think hilux
Kept up with maintenance and replaced parts as they went. He had to let it go when the frame was rusting through. Over 30 years as his daily driver.
Hilux don’t die, they just rust away
I've done rust hole patches, but grandpa's small toyota pickup was more patch than original steel by the time it got written off following being hit by another car while parked. We probably could have fixed it but grandpa took it as his sign to give up his license and accepted whatever icbc suggested for dealing with the truck.
The only people who think that Teslas are cool are Tech-bros, who are overrepresented in social media.
i think this answers my question; i'm a software developer and all my colleagues & bosses think tesla's are awesome and i mostly follow tech influencers on social media.
maybe it's a good thing that i this job market is forcing me to go back into IT; i'll run into fewer tech-bros.
By what sort of people, though? I know two people who have a Tesla: one of them regrets owning one now (even though they bought it used), and the other's a huge fucking pile of shit in the shape of a person.
yeah, this thread is making me realize that i'm a software-developer/tech-bro bubble
Hey, props for realizing it. Most software dev tech bros refuse to acknowledge that they're in a bubble. Now you can start to step out of it.
Now you can start to step out of it.
not if i want to stay employed; being likeable is more important than the hard skills in my field unless i'm some sort of savant and liking the same things helps.
Sounds like a terrible way to live
it's not great. i broke into the software development field less than 10 years ago and; ever since learning that it's dominated by tech bros and their enablers; i've been trying to get back into IT ever since.
it would be A LOT easier of software developers weren't the only jobs available for the past 6 months; but it is what it is.
3 second 0-to-60 times probably have something to do with it.
They do have good 0-60 times, but they’re very heavy, they don’t turn well, and they overheat if you push them hard, so anyone who wants a sports car isn’t going to look at a tesla. Their biggest advantage is probably the supercharger network, but that advantage isn’t going to last much longer.
What, just because he fired everyone and no one’s answering the phones anymore?
Pshaw. Everything’s going to plan.
i'm trying to understand how they're still so coveted all over social media.
Botnets.
There's also a not-so-unfounded conspiracy that Tesla has a significant number of employees going onto social media to create that narrative.
Not to mention one of the few actually intelligent things Elon did, and convince a ton of people to tie their financial future and wellbeing to Tesla by putting basically their entire portfolio into it, by various means. Couple that with the referral programs telling people they'll get a free $250k car if they shill hard enough through the referral program, and you have a massive army of people whose finances are heavily intertwined with Tesla
I don't think they are anymore. There are more options in the market now than there were four years ago, Teslas tend to be expensive for what you get, and the quality of Tesla has been demonstrated to be terrible, time after time. I think that the biggest thing that's working in Tesla's favor right now is availability; if other fully electric cars were as available as Teslas are, he'd probably see the bottom fall out of his market completely.
As it is, Dems in general are more likely to be interested in electric vehicles, and he's actively pissing them off. That's a very bad business decision, if you want to keep having a company.
if other fully electric cars were as available as Teslas are, he’d probably see the bottom fall out of his market completely.
other fully electric cars are already available and dominating across the entire planet except for the united states and canada and the price tag for a competitive model is around $20k; so i suspect tesla is going to stay king so long as both republicans and democrats continue to support 100% tarrifs on EV's.
given how we bail out the big american car companies with no-strings-attached handouts every decade and a half or so and we're about to do it again; it's a sure bet to assume tesla is safe for a long time.
Discounting the tariffs--which are not an easy issue--American electric vehicles are still in their relative infancy. Tesla has been making electric cars, yes, but they're bad. Tesla simply doesn't have the institutional knowledge about car manufacturing and design, so they do things that the auto industry as a whole knows is dumb. Like, electric components than can get shorted out from going to a car wash (!), or electronic door latches that become inoperable if the battery fails because the car has caught on fire (!!!). Right now, non-Chinese/non-Tesla EVs simply don't have a lot of market presence, but the few that are on the market are selling out (e.g., when the Ford F-150 Lightning was introduced, pre-orders were more than a full year's production). Software issues seem to be plaguing American EVs, which is... Not surprising, TBH. But IMO, I'd rather have software issues than hardware problems.
Right now, non-Chinese/non-Tesla EVs simply don’t have a lot of market presence,
-- in the united states and canada because of those tariffs; they're dominating everywhere that doesn't have high tariffs.
They WERE maybe 5 years ago. All good will died with Musk taking over.
Musk has been there since the early days. The company was founded in July 2003. Musk joined as an early (and majority) investor in February 2004. He became CEO in 2008.
5 years ago is about right for when Musk started losing it, but he was at Tesla long before that.
Are they? Maybe something like an S Plaid or a Cybertruck, but the Tesla name is synonymous with those fuckhuge ugly wagon models you see everywhere on the road these days. Even absent of Musk's connection to the brand, I haven't seen a Tesla be considered a status symbol in years
By who?
Tesla cars have always been tin cans on wheels with QC problems. Now they are tin cans on wheels with QC issues that also double as MAGA hats.
i need & want an EV that can do 90% of what a tesla can do but for 25% the price at $11k; the rest of the world gets them, but not the united states and canada thanks to the 100% tariff on EV's