by Mike Gulett –
Is it time for Elon Musk to step down as Tesla CEO? It seems his significant time spent on politics and now his US governmental duties are interfering with his Tesla duties.
His political opinions, that have come more brightly to light in recent months, have turned off quite a few customers, potential customers and investors. His politics and government work have created a resistance to buying Tesla cars among some people. There is a growing movement to boycott Tesla and publicly shaming current Tesla owners, many of who want to sell their Tesla cars but cannot because of the drop in used Tesla prices.
Musk’s political activism either had a “negative” or “extremely negative” effect on Tesla’s business, according to 85% of respondents to an informal survey of nearly 250 Morgan Stanley clients. A clear majority also anticipate a second straight decline in annual deliveries to customers.
From a article in Fortune about a survey by the Morgan Stanley auto analysts, Adam Jonas.
Tesla’s fall from grace may have no equal, says JPMorgan: ‘We struggle to think of anything analogous’
From another Fortune article.
Tesla sales revenue is down, the stock price is down and Musk does not seem to be spending much time correcting the situation. He also is the CEO of other companies like SpaceX, which takes time away from Tesla. Tesla stakeholders deserve the full time attention of their CEO.
Irony
Tesla was founded in Silicon Valley and from the beginning had the support of California customers who wanted electric vehicles to replace gas powered vehicles. These California customers bought a lot of Tesla cars and were instrumental in Tesla’s success especially in the early years.
They are the same people who are turning away from Musk now because of his political views and government activity. Musk has turned off his strongest customer base (including those like minded people who do not live in California or the USA). Is it possible for Musk to regain the support of these former customers? I doubt it.
Considering that the vast majority of Musk’s wealth is in Tesla shares one would think he would pay more attention to Tesla but it seems he may have lost interest.
Time for a change? I believe it is.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Tesla Share Price – 2025 Year to Date as of March 13 – from Yahoo Finance
Arrogant, ignorant, incompetent, and a thick overlay of mean spirit.
Musk has stigmatized the brand for me.
Perhaps he needs to focus more on his own companies, though historically he has not always been a benefit to the public relations side of the businesses since the beginning. I will say that what he is doing in Washington is only offensive to those feeding at the trough not the ones filling it!