Tesla Is About To Collapse.
This isn't hyperbole.
After years of catching flack from die-hard Tesla fans, I have felt incredibly vindicated these past few weeks. Now that the mask is off, the world can see Musk for who he really is. He delivered not just one, but two, clear Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration and made an appearance at an AfD campaign rally (a German far-right political party with many ties to white supremacy and neo-Nazis) in which he stated they should “move beyond” the past guilt of their country and try to avoid losing their German values in “some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.” With these acts as fresh context, many have gone back and analysed his past actions, rhetoric, and political advocacy in shock and horror. He has surrounded himself with anti-democratic white supremacists for decades now, and during the course of this time, he has looked like, acted like, sounded like, and thought like a neo-Nazi. We just didn’t notice it until he made it painfully obvious.
However, the question has to be asked: How does this affect his most public-facing company, Tesla? Many of you reading this will own Tesla vehicles or shares or even have pensions or savings accounts that invest in Tesla. Well, to be frank, I think you should sell all of it before it is too late, as it isn’t just Musk’s politics that are about to sink this automotive giant. Let me explain.
Firstly, the social backlash.
Tolerating fascism, white supremacy, or Nazism is the same as openly supporting it. These movements have never truly dominated public opinion. After all, they openly seek to disenfranchise the masses, concentrate executive power, and diminish people’s rights.. Instead, they thrive by having a vocal minority that is tolerated by the majority, either due to conditioning and propaganda or by the majority profiting from the movement. This is why a significant amount of mass media in the later half of the 20th century openly displayed unmitigated violence to anyone even remotely associated with Nazism, even from otherwise calm figures. This wasn’t hyperbole or sucking up to US national pride; it was demonstrating what people had to do to keep these damaging ideologies at bay, and the public at large, philosophers, and even social scientists agreed with this notion. We should stamp out Nazism and fascism at every turn.
Why does this matter?
Well, stamping out Nazis with force is very much in the public zeitgeist, and it is now painfully evident that owning a Tesla equates to tolerating an open fascist. The company, and Musk by proxy, profits from selling or leasing you their car, selling you spare parts, charging at their superchargers, and using your data to train their idiotically incapable “self-driving” AI. And, if you have any financial product that uses Tesla shares or you own Tesla shares yourself, you are in a position to profit from Musk’s flavour of fascism.
Consequently, hundreds of thousands are shedding Tesla from their lives. A survey in the Netherlands found that a third of Tesla owners either have or are planning to sell their car because of Musk’s actions, and half of Tesla owners are ashamed of owning one. The Polish Minister of Tourism said, “There is no justification for any reasonable Pole to continue purchasing Teslas.” Multiple German businesses, such as Badenova, Viebrock, and Rossmann, have expressed intent or already have boycotted Tesla from their operations. Jerry Rig Everything, a massively popular tech YouTuber who has been amicable with and highly complimentary of Tesla for years now, has vowed to sell every Tesla he owns this year because of Musk’s political actions. Where I live in the UK, the used price of Teslas has crashed as the second-hand market has been flooded with angry owners selling up fast. And, if you value your freedom, rights, or the global stability of geopolitics, you should cut out Tesla from your life too.
Needless to say, this will squeeze Tesla as a business, as sales and second-hand prices are set to drop dramatically in the coming months. This brings me to my second point: Tesla isn’t actually doing so well right now.
Their 2024 sales were down 1.1% over 2023. That doesn’t sound like much, but they were projected to massively outstrip 2023’s numbers, representing a dramatic underperformance. Tesla’s stock price dropped by a gargantuan 24% over 2024. This was partially caused by the lacklustre sales but also their dwindling lead in the EV world, an ageing lineup, disappointment in their self-driving progress, and mass sales of Tesla stock associated with Musk’s political movements. The Cybertruck was meant to solve all of this by dramatically increasing its sales, solidifying its market share, and proving its technological lead. Yet, Tesla only sold 40,000 Cybertrucks last year despite having a 250,000-unit manufacturing capacity built. In fact, Tesla was set to double their capacity this year, as they expected demand to be so high, but because there is basically zero demand for this idiotic vehicle, Tesla is actually dramatically cutting production capacity this year, which is a major step backwards.
Somehow, though, it will still get worse for Tesla, and not just if their sales drop as a result of boycotts. Tesla still relies on selling regulatory credits for a whopping 40% of its profits. These credits are given to companies that sell low- or zero-emission vehicles, which can then be sold to legacy automakers to offset the emissions caused by their combustion vehicles. For example, the only reason Alfa Romeo has been allowed to stay open, despite having a lineup of vehicles that don’t meet regulatory emissions laws, is because they buy credits from Tesla that offset this and make their polluting fleet legal to sell.
But, over the next year or so, many of these legacy automakers will launch next-gen EVs that undercut and outperform Tesla’s lineup and are predicted to sell incredibly well. As such, the automotive industry isn’t likely to need to buy many, if any, of these credits in the coming years, as their own offerings will already meet emissions laws.
This means one of Tesla’s most significant income streams is about to totally collapse, and buyers seeking to buy non-fascist-supporting EVs are only going to speed up the process.
Admittedly, many no longer see Tesla as a car company; instead, they value it as a tech company. After all, Musk wants to move past selling cars and become a robotaxi company. It seems the hype around Tesla’s self-driving technology is all that is keeping its stock price buoyant at the moment. Unfortunately for Tesla, the recent Cybercab event proved that Tesla’s robotaxi is vapourware (read more here). It is nowhere near ready and likely never will be. Indeed, even the proposed roadmap for the Cybercab — how it will work, how it will operate, and how Tesla will sell it — makes zero sense practically or even legally. It’s nothing short of a fucking mess that looks more like a con than a viable piece of technology, let alone the basis for a multi-billion dollar corporation.
No matter how you look at it, the future of Tesla is bleak.
As a business, Musk is driving it into the ground with failed promises, shit products, and sucking as much money out of it as he possibly can. His political radicalism and wildly dangerous verbatim Nazi rhetoric are only speeding up the process of Tesla’s inevitable collapse (which he himself has engineered) from an industry giant to a despised also-ran.
This is not financial advice. I am also not financially biased; I own no Tesla stock or vehicles and never plan on doing so. I also don’t own any rival stock or vehicles. So when I tell you to please sell and distance yourself from anything Tesla, I’m doing so in your best interest. I don’t want you to lose huge sums of money or lose your freedoms and way of life to an American Fourth Reich. It’s time we move past Tesla and let it die.
Thanks for reading! Content like this doesn’t happen without your support. So, if you want to see more like this, don’t forget to Subscribe and help get the word out by hitting the share button below.
Sources: Politico, Fortune, Sky, Teslarati, Al Jazeera, CNBC, Unilad, Inside EVs, The Guardian, Inside EVs, AP, Electrek