Trouble with Tesla
Tesla seems to be driving into trouble as it faces falling sales, growing public hate, and stiff Chinese competition. Elon Musk's electric vehicle (EV) company just reported a 13% drop in global sales for the first quarter of 2025, its first year-on-year decline in four years. Tesla is already offering attractive discounts and financing options but only sold around 387,000 cars which is a disappointment from analyst expectations. Analysts blame competition from Chinese rivals like BYD which are offering lower prices aside from newer designs and technology.
Musk's Politics
Aside from the challenges above, Tesla is facing public hate due to CEO Elon Musk’s right-wing politics. Musk’s endorsement of far-right political figures and involvement in D.O.G.E (seriously, a US goverment agency named after a meme coin) has driven away some of the company's potential customers and attracted backlash globally. Elon Musk's actions have led to protests, vandalism of Tesla cars, and even boycotts. In Germany, one of Tesla’s key markets, EV sales dropped by over 42% last month, March 2025, showing the potential impact of Musk’s politics on Telsa's sales.
Musk Asked to Step Down as CEO
Of course, shareholders and the board are worried as Tesla’s stock has dropped about 45% since December 2024. According to CleanTechnica, some members of Tesla’s board reportedly asked Musk to consider handling the driver's seat to another CEO.
Conclusion
Tesla seems to be driving in Budweiser's path some years ago when it attracted backlash following the Dylan Mulvaney commercials. Analysts are forecasting further declines in 2025, with some expecting an additional 9% drop. Additionally, Donald Trump's tariff wars could further hurt profitability.
On the bright side, Tesla is still a valuable brand being an EV pioneer. However, it's experiencing a bumpy ride due to Chinese competition, public backlash and internal discord. Not sure if Tesla can rebound this year and regain it's market dominance and public trust , we'll have to wait and see.
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/03/business/elon-musk-tesla-sales-nightcap/index.html
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/01/tesla-board-asks-elon-musk-to-step-down/#google_vignette
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-investors-brace-another-year-sales-decline-musk-backlash-grows-2025-04-04/
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Tesla will be fine and BYD sales will collapse from Trump tariffs as they become 38% more expensive in the largest market (US) and other countries (like Israel) reduce taxes on US cars (ie Tesla) to get the US to reduce their tariffs.
BYD (selling big numbers in Israel) is going to be badly hit.
Tesla haters will go to jail for 20 years.
I'd say right now is a buy signal.
Hopefully, it will not come to a point where one will have to suffer to make another succeed. Healthy competition where both sides gain is still best for business.
On Tesla negative sentiment, kinda reminds me of what happened to Budweiser recently due to Dylan Mulvaney ads backlash. Seems Musk involvement in politics has been met with similar reaction.
Except Musk's involvement in politics was extremely valuable & productive, indeed essential to save the USA and humanity, while Bud's actions were a totally unnecessary own goal.
I'm sure Musk is quite happy to pay a price with Tesla sales in order to remove blockers to Mars settlement & making humans multi-planetary and getting the Trump Admin to fully support it.
He is not motivated by money and Tesla has already served its purpose. SpaceX is now massively profitable itself and no longer needs support from Musk's Tesla resources.
Maybe its now I can get a cheap Tesla LOL
If you really like the brand but BYD offers much cheaper alternative. 😀
!BBH
Yeah, that's why I mentioned... "get a cheap Tesla" - cheaper than BYD...
By the way the BYD brand completely flips my brain... because BYD is Bring Your Device ... even if the right way is BYOD, still messes with my brain.