Tesla took on a challenge when only a few other companies dared to make all-electric cars. Even Toyota, which pioneered hybrid cars with the Prius, waited until 2023 to unveil its first Battery Electric vehicle (BEV), the bizarrely named BZ4X, which is also marketed by Subaru under the “Solterra” branding.
Tesla, named after the electricity pioneer (there is another BEV start-up called Nikola, Tesla’s first name), built a BEV from the ground up.
Elon Musk, the South-African born genius who is also the main figure behind SpaceX, successfully took the behemoths of the car industry such as Toyota, GM, Chrysler, VW and Nissan-Renault to launch a BEV, when most of these companies had not even thought of one. Contrary to popular opinion, Musk is not the “owner” of Tesla but he owns a lot of stock in the company and is its “face” to the outside world.
Tesla’s first car was the Roadster in 2008, which was based at that time on a Lotus chassis. Since then, a Tesla Roadster has been sent to space by SpaceX. The Roadster was rather expensive, but Tesla later introduced the Model S (no longer produced in Right hand Drive), Model 3 (the least expensive Tesla at US$ 35,000), Model X (with infamous gull wing doors) and Model Y, a crossover. Tesla is still the leading BEV car brand, but China’s BYD is tugging at its heels.
Tesla’s fortunes have experienced a rapid decline in almost all markets in recent days as Musk’s destructive streak as the de-facto head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has hogged headlines worldwide.
Musk, who pumped more than US$ 300 million to the election campaign of US President Donald Trump, has fired thousands of Federal employees through DOGE, spoken in support of Far Right parties in Germany and the rest of Europe, publicly made what appeared to be a Nazi salute and in his own words, “fed the USAID to the wood chipper”. These actions have not gone down well with most people in the US, including many of those who support President Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign.
Musk’s activism has led many Tesla owners to get rid of their cars as fast as possible, lest they also be seen as “accomplices” in some of the outrageous acts. Some, without selling their cars, have pasted bumper stickers to the effect that they bought the Tesla(s) “before Elon went crazy”.
There have been many anti-Musk demonstrations opposite Tesla lots in the US and elsewhere. Quite a few Tesla cars, superchargers and dealerships have been vandalised and set on fire, which prompted warnings from President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi that the perpetrators would be considered as “domestic terrorists” liable to face a long jail sentence up to 20 years. Tesla stocks have tanked in the middle of all this, wiping billions of dollars off Tesla’s balance books and Musk’s personal wealth, which is mostly held in the form of stocks.
There have been suggestions that Musk should step down from the reins at Tesla and hand it over to someone recruited from outside, as ride-hailing firm Uber did in the case of Travis Kalanick, its founder CEO who was mired in trouble and controversy.
But Musk is perhaps too invested – and not only in monetary terms – to give up control of Tesla to an outsider. Critics have also argued that by remaining on the Tesla board, Musk may potentially face conflict of interest as well, since the US Defence Forces have expressed interest in buying Tesla’s controversial Cybertrucks in a deal valued at US$ 400 million.
While it is true that having someone else as the CEO might actually ward off Tesla’s politically-connected troubles, issues such as the Cybertruck recall hints at a far greater malaise within Tesla.
But those who attack Tesla vehicles and forecourts over their disagreements with its CEO are missing the wood for the trees. Apart from the ugly Cybertruck, all other Teslas are truly world class products that the competitors are catching up to only now. Its self-driving technology and robo-taxi services are still a work in progress, mainly because of regulatory hurdles that are in place worldwide. Tesla vehicles must be weighed on their own merits and demerits, not on the worst impulsions of its maverick CEO.
