Tag: electric vehicles
Tesla Musk cybertruck

Tesla Admits Musk's Politics Behind 71% Revenue Crash

On automaker Tesla's first quarterly earnings call of 2025, the electric vehicle manufacturer made a stunning admission that public animus toward CEO Elon Musk has directly contributed to its abysmal profits.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Tesla's first-quarter revenue was just $409 million, which is a 71 percent decrease from the $1.4 billion the company made in the first three months of 2024. And the company told investors on the call that the significant decrease in sales is partially due to "changing political sentiment" that "could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near term" — an apparent reference to Musk.

Musk's public role in President Donald Trump's administration has resulted in widespread protests at Tesla dealerships across the country as part of the "Tesla Takedown" movement. That movement — launched by actor Alex Winter of the Bill & Ted franchise — has also caught on around the world, with protesters in Europe and Australia also demonstrating outside of Tesla dealerships in response to Musk's role in the Trump White House.

The electric vehicle company is also taking a beating as a result of Chinese competitors like BYD, which saw its sales jump by roughly 60 percent in the first three months of 2025. Additionally, established automakers like General Motors, Ford and BMW, along with newer companies like Rivian and Polestar have made a dent in Tesla's sales by rolling out competing vehicles that could be seen as more appealing to liberal and centrist buyers.

Musk has signaled that he intends to leave the Trump administration soon, after his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — with Trump's blessing – has made deep cuts to multiple federal agencies and fired thousands of public workers. He indicated multiple times that he sought to cut Social Security to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, alleging without evidence that the agency was illegally giving money to undocumented immigrants and helping them register to vote (undocumented immigrants do not qualify for Social Security and voting while undocumented is already a felony crime).

But even if Musk walks away from his role in the Trump White House, Tesla investors may still be eager to oust him as the company's CEO. Last month, a longtime Tesla investor called for Musk to resign as CEO or be dismissed by the company's board.

"The company's reputation has just been destroyed by Elon Musk," investor Ross Gerber told Sky News in March. "Sales are plummeting so, yeah, it's a crisis. You literally can't sell the best product in the marketplace because the CEO is so divisive."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Musk's Extremism Driving Tesla Finances Into 'A Disaster On Every Metric'

Musk's Extremism Driving Tesla Finances Into 'A Disaster On Every Metric'

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and a terrible parent, was handed another loss on Wednesday, after his electric vehicle company Tesla released its first quarter sales report. The news wasn’t good. The EV maker reported its lowest quarter sales since 2022, well below the modest predictions analysts had forecasted.

Tesla shares fluctuated, beginning Wednesday with a six percent drop, before rebounding, possibly due to talk that Musk would be leaving his Department of Government Efficiency. And even Tesla cheerleaders, like Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, were having a hard time turning this lemon into lemonade, as he expressed on X.

Musk’s latest setback comes just a week after reports that Tesla’s sales in Europe had dropped 40 percent in February, even as Europe’s EV market was enjoying an upswing in sales. Tesla’s losses in Europe can be partly attributed to Musk’s full-throated support of Germany’s far-right, neo-Nazi-affiliated Alternative for Germany party.

“In addition to Elon Musk’s increasingly active role in politics and the increased competition it is facing within the EV market, the brand is phasing out the existing version of the Model Y—its best-selling vehicle,” Felipe Munoz, global analyst at Jato Dynamics told the Financial Times.

Tesla’s brand has taken hits on top of Musk’s embrace of right-wing extremism. Nearly all of Tesla’s Cybertrucks were recalled in March due to issues stemming from the glue used to hold the stainless steel facade detaching, creating possible dangerous road hazards.

While Tesla faces increased competition in the market, the biggest problem the company faces is Musk’s politics and personality. Musk and DOGE’s unconstitutional attack on government agencies has cost tens of thousands of Americans their jobs and threatened their economic security.

His damage control efforts have been pathetic, undermined by his continued attacks on democracy, such as his unsuccessful yet transparent attempt to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

The Trump administration has clearly been ordered to cravenly prop up the billionaire’s nosediving reputation. But promising to throw people in jail if they protest against Tesla, holding an informercial in front of the White House, and having the entire Trump administration hawk Tesla stock during their television appearances has clearly not been the recipe for success they hoped for.

And now, Musk’s toxicity has become so great that even Donald Trump’s most loyal parasites are trying to find the right way to distance the GOP leader from his top donor. Whether or not Trump and friends can quit Musk’s hundreds of billions of dollars remains to be seen.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Musk's Infamy Is Sinking Tesla Sales - And Its Stock Price

Musk's Infamy Is Sinking Tesla Sales - And Its Stock Price

Stocks for the electric vehicle company Tesla just wrapped its worst month since 2022, and it’s all because of its certifiably insane CEO, Elon Musk.

In February, Tesla shares plummeted 28%, signaling their worst month since a 37% drop in December 2022. The stock fell by an additional 3% on Monday alone.

And after Trump announced he would enact his disastrous tariff policy, it could bottleneck Tesla’s manufacturing, fracturing it even more.

“We note that potential tariffs on Mexico and Canada pose significant risk to our [North American] production estimates and could create a supply shock similar to COVID,” Bank of America analyst John Murphy said to CNBC on Tuesday. He also highlighted that “sentiment on the brand [is] potentially souring.”

This comes after the six weeks of Musk meddling in the federal government via his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is gutting federal agencies, firing thousands of federal employees, and generally wreaking havoc on Americans.

In addition to Musk poisoning his brand’s supposed coolness, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the company’s sales in China have slowed by a staggering 49% in February compared with the previous year at that time.

“I don’t even want to drive it,” one Tesla owner told the Associated Press. “He’s destroying the brand with his politics.”

Tesla sales are dropping all across Europe. As Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas reported in January, the decline in Tesla sales has largely tracked with Musk’s entrance into politics last year.

Americans are angry over Musk’s hand in the government and have taken to protesting nationwide at Tesla dealerships or allegedly setting Tesla charging stations on fire. And those who were thinking about purchasing Teslas have gone on a “buyers strike,” while many of those who have already bought them are communicating their buyer's remorse with bumper stickers, such as one reading, “We bought this car before we knew.”

Meanwhile, Musk is seemingly enriching himself through the government. Earlier this month, he reportedly hid the State Department’s plan to pay out $400 million to Tesla for armored vehicles—a contract the administration says it’s abandoning after it came to light.

Americans are pissed at Musk’s corruption, and they are telling him in the only way he understands: money.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Why Is Trump Sabotaging The US Auto Industry?

Why Is Trump Sabotaging The US Auto Industry?

If Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to take down the U.S. auto industry — and he probably does — he couldn't have a better helper than Donald Trump. The American president's tireless efforts to slow America's shift to electricity-run transportation is a dream come true for China as it leads the world in that transition.

Electric vehicles are the cars and trucks of the future. In some parts of the world, that future is here. Norway now has more fully electric cars on its roads than the gas-powered kind.

China has put enormous resources behind the development and manufacture of EVs. The U.S. was on the case when Joe Biden was president. Trump is taking away those subsidies, thus messing with U.S. automakers' big plans to compete in this growing market.

The politics of it are also wild. About 80% of the Biden-era clean energy investments are in red states (or if they are rescinded, were).

In North Carolina, Toyota just unveiled a $13.9 billion battery plant in the small town of Liberty. Another maker of cutting-edge batteries will soon open near Raleigh, not far from a factory that builds charging infrastructure.

Trump also wants to take away money Congress appropriated for EV charging stations. That appears to be illegal, but Republicans in Congress seem more afraid of Trump than voters who could lose jobs.

But one Republican, Alabama's Gov. Kay Ivey, defends that funding. "Having strategic electric vehicle charging stations across Alabama not only benefits EV drivers, but it also benefits those companies that produce electric vehicles, including many of them right here in Alabama, resulting in more high-paying jobs for Alabamians."

All true.

Some observers surmise that Elon Musk sees a personal gain in slowing down the growth of charging stations. His Tesla currently has the largest network of fast chargers in the country. Adding chargers could help sales of EVs other than Elon's.

Potentially hurting the American automakers are the 25% tariffs Trump wants to slap on the parts they get from Canada and Mexico. This shared production arrangement makes U.S. cars more price-competitive on world markets, thus protecting the jobs of American workers.

But get this: Musk is now suing the European Union over its decision to put hefty tariffs on EVs made in China. Tesla, you see, makes more than half its EVs in China.

MAGA has been brainwashed to see evil behind efforts to direct American drivers away from fossil fuels. As a self-pitying Arizonan told The Wall Street Journal, EVs are "being pushed down our throats."

A Morning Consult poll taken last spring found that 4 in 10 Americans have unfavorable views of EVs. And 38% of those respondents said their political views were a factor.

One must ask: What mean man is forcing Americans to buy electric vehicles? No one is stopping you or me from going to an auto showroom or used car lot and driving off with a 100% gas-powered machine.

Having the U.S. government help a new domestic industry is what we call economic policy. When Henry Ford's first Model T rolled out of the factory in 1908, America had almost no paved roads beyond the cities.

Ford was a strong advocate for the kinds of roads his new cars needed to run on. He became the first chairman of the Wayne County Road Commission. The Federal-Aid Road Act was passed in 1916 and the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1921.

Back to the present, sales of Chinese-made EVs rose 40% last year alone. China also has the world's largest network of charging stations.

Something tells us President Xi Jinping likes the way things are going in the age of Trump.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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