The electric car maker Tesla was created by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who reputedly sought to make electric cars that were fast and fun to drive. The company was officially incorporated in 20031.
In January 2008, both Eberhard and Tarpenning were forced out of the company at the behest of investor Elon Musk, who subsequently took over as CEO2. Their departure was supposedly because of their inexperience in running such a company.
In the global Financial Crisis, Tesla almost did go belly up, and needed to be bailed out by Musk’s entire liquid fortune, but also other car makers Mercedes and Toyota. The remaining billion was raised by selling equity and by obtaining loans3. One of those loans was for US$465 million from the US Department of Energy, which Tesla repaid in full in 2013. By this time Tesla had achieved overall profitability in July 2009; this came from the second iteration of its Roadster sports car2.
A few years ago, I wrote somewhere (I cannot find it now) that I suspected when the major car manufacturers got their arses into gear by building electric vehicles (EVs), then Tesla’s share of the EV market would fall. This has proven to be the case as many of the big carmakers (BMW, VW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, Kia, Toyota, Audi, Hyundai) are making EVs and Plug-In Hybrid EVs (PHEVs). However, perhaps the biggest surprise is the Chinese company, BYD, which has taken over as market leader in a big way. As at September 2024, BYD sold about 400,000 EVs worldwide, compared to Tesla’s 190,000 sales4.
In this article in Autovista from late November 2024, it gave more detailed trends for Tesla, stating that it was inconsistent, in part because of its regular pattern of increased deliveries at the end of each quarter. Tesla saw increases in January, May, July and September, but saw slumps in February March, April, June and August. It predicted that Tesla would likely report record growth in 2025 with the refresh of the Model Y and increased production of the Cybertruck4.
Then Elon Musk did a couple of nazi salutes at an event after Donald Trump’s swearing-in as US president5. This was followed by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency sacking thousands of people from the federal workforce, some of whom voted for Trump in the expectation that it would not be them who suffered (gullibility bites back)6.
While I thought Tesla’s share of global markets would decline, I didn’t suspect it would be aided and abetted by Elon Musk. As a consequence of Musk’s behaviour, sales worldwide have dropped 13% in the first three months of 2025 This is down 50,000 units from the same period last year. This decline has occurred despite deep discounts, interest free financing and other incentives. In Australia, the data for February indicate a decline of 72% from the same month last year. Of this, the sales of the Model 3 were down 81%. While part of this can be attributed to a move from pure EV to PHEV, the decline in car purchases generally, the decline in Tesla’s sales was larger than its competitors7.
In Germany, where nazi salutes are illegal, Tesla sales are down 42.5% from March 2024, and the January-March figures reveal a drop of 62.2% compared to the same interval last year, whereas the total number of electric vehicles increased by 38.9%. Other countries such as France, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark have also seen first quarter drops in sales of over 40%8.
To show you how desperate Musk is, the US was treated to a corruption clown show on the White House lawns with Trump spruiking the Tesla cause, despite frequently attacking electric vehicles during last year’s presidential campaign9.
This is ironic in the extreme, as Tesla is all about being zero emissions while Trump has for years stated that global warming is a hoax and this has been trumpeted by his enthusiastic supporters in the RWNJ media. However, now some of those same RWNJs are spruiking Tesla’s cause9.
In addition to the Model S parked at the White House, was a Cybertruck, to my mind one of the oddest and ugliest vehicles ever built. Not only that, but it has had numerous problems with accelerator pedal malfunctions, panels dropping off (they were held on with glue, not rivets or bolts) among others which have caused the Cybertruck to be recalled five times since its first production prototype was delivered in July 202310.
Cap this off with people protesting outside Tesla dealerships, vandalising Tesla vehicles in carparks and car-yards, and hurling Molotov cocktails at Teslas in dealership car-yards11. Tesla was also banned from the Vancouver International Auto Show, which broke attendance records. This after Musk stated on Xitter that Canada “is not a real country”. Selling your Tesla has also become problematic, as the price for used Teslas has dropped almost three times the rate of decline in the price of used cars generally12.
Tesla’s market value has also declined dramatically since its peak in December 2024 where its share price was about US$480. It is, at the time of writing, at US$26713. There has been much speculation that Musk will be forced out of his CEO position, as he has been asked to leave voluntarily by the Tesla Board14.
As a way for people to hopefully prevent their Tesla cars from being defaced or otherwise vandalised, they can buy stickers for their Tesla which state ‘I bought this before Elon went crazy’15. To believe Musk is anything but crazy, and a child of his apartheid upbringing, seems to be only for the gullible.
Sources
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/061915/story-behind-teslas-success.asp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tesla,_Inc.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/11/12/why-was-martin-eberhard-forced-out-of-tesla-motors/
- https://autovista24.autovistagroup.com/news/which-automotive-brands-are-leading-the-global-ev-market/
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gesture-speaks-for-itself-germans-divided-over-musks-apparent-nazi-salute
- https://apnews.com/article/doge-firings-layoffs-federal-government-workers-musk-d33cdd7872d64d2bdd8fe70c28652654
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/06/australian-tesla-sales-plummet-elon-musk
- https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-german-car-sales-continue-plummet-march-2025-04-03/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/trump-musk-tesla-white-house-showroom-buys-car-rcna195905
- https://www.fastcompany.com/91109879/a-timeline-of-tesla-cybertruck-problems-from-rust-to-hail-damage-to-pedal-recalls
- https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-targeted-by-vandalism-over-musks-right-wing-activism-2025-04-01/
- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/19/cars/tesla-removed-vancouver-auto-show/index.html
- https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+share+price+chart&sca_esv=f4af6905b7ddecc7&sxsrf=AHTn8zoPOW6T-I8xM1h1SchCkA0w1CxdAQ%3A1743738042941&ei=ulTvZ-GcOcGh1e8P0dm-wQY&ved=0ahUKEwjh4YW1ur2MAxXBUPUHHdGsL2gQ4dUDCBA&oq=tesla+share+price+chart&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiF3Rlc2xhIHNoYXJlIHByaWNlIGNoYXJ0SABQAFgAcAB4AZABAJgBAKABAKoBALgBDMgBAJgCAKACAJgDAJIHAKAHALIHALgHAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
- https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/01/tesla-board-asks-elon-musk-to-step-down/
- https://evcentral.com.au/opinion-elon-musk-is-the-puppet-master-president-better-buy-a-bumper-sticker/
Having read a little about his parents it’s likely the apple fell very close to the tree. His mother’s comments about Trump show a similar disdain for fact and a very familiar inability/unwillingness to judge character, and/or a total lack of care about what happens to others.
“I think Trump just wants everything to be honest and open so that you know where your tax dollars are going. He’s not going to be mean to people. When I see him, he just seems happy that he can make changes that will improve lives… I think we’re all going to be happier,” Maye told FOX News.
Jon,
Completely delusional. It is hard to know if it is a mental illness, an inability to see what is in front of them, or to be able to detect a charlatan