Summary

Tesla reported its worst quarterly results in four years, with Q1 income down 71% and EV sales falling 13%.

Elon Musk vowed to refocus on Tesla amid backlash over his political role in the Trump Administration’s DOGE program, but analysts doubt his return will fix worsening issues.

Tesla faces eroding market share, failed products like the Cybertruck, and a coming 145% tariff on imported Chinese battery cells set to hammer the company’s battery pack business, one of the only bright spots last quarter.

Musk’s pivot to robotaxis and humanoid robots lacks credibility, and critics say Tesla has no compelling new EVs to revive growth.

  • aceshigh@lemmy.world
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    35 minutes ago

    Let’s see what kind of a genius businessman musk is. My dad thinks that all billionaires are smart. Prove him right musk! Save Tesla from yourself.

  • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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    48 minutes ago

    We hadn’t heard much from him over the past few weeks, and now we get this earnings call, and it is far worse than expected. He’s known this was coming, and has been laying low, probably hoping things will improve some before making what he knows would be a disastrous earnings call. Its the equivalent of watching your diet 3 days before a doctor’s appointment, hoping your weight gain and cholesterol increase won’t be as bad as you know it is.

    Also, it’s a safe bet that his board of directors is livid, and that he has been ordered by his board to get back to work, or be removed as CEO of Tesla.

    There is almost certainly a shareholder class-action suit brewing over his reckless and irresponsible behavior over the last several months, which has directly caused severe, and probably irreparable damage to the company’s brand image AND it’s sales around the world, as well as tanking the stock price, an unforgiveable sin in the investing world. Now that the bubble has popped, it will never inflate again. As future earnings reports are released, and sales continue to slide, the stock will continue to decline, and the cycle will continue until bankruptcy. And it is all traceable to Skum’s self-indulgent, egotistical behavior.

    The only question is will Skum be the only defendant, or will the lawsuit also name the individual members of the board, for not reigning him in, or firing him. They don’t want to be sued alongside him, so they are forcing him to get back to work saving Tesla, thus letting them off the hook for legal liability.

    Its doubtful Skum will be able to save Tesla at this point, its almost certainly too late. It is also probably too late to avoid a shareholder lawsuit. Investors have lost millions of dollars, not due to the vagaries of the market, but due to Skum’s outrageous behavior, like throwing up celebratory Nazi salutes on national TV, which, as CEO, he should have realized would damage his company and its investors significantly.

    And arguing that he didn’t recognize the danger in advance is no excuse at all for a CEO, who should have been able to predict the response to his self-indulgent ego bender.

    Shareholders have lost many millions, and they won’t just let that go with an “Oh well.” He’s likely going to get sued, and the board is just making sure they don’t go down with him.

    I give Tesla two years before they file for bankruptcy, and I’m only giving it that long because HitlerPig will give him a bail out that will buy him a little time.

  • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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    11 minutes ago

    Elon Musk vowed to refocus on Tesla

    We already know his management meddling wrecks things and that his workers generally prefer him to back off and let them work effectively. This can only make thing worse for his businesses.

  • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    You can’t un-ring being a Nazi and I won’t be buying another Tesla with or without a Nazi at the helm because we all know even if he ‘steps down’ his fortune will still be tied to his stock ownership.

    Nazi Around, Find Out

  • wirebeads@lemmy.ca
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    1 hour ago

    Who cares. Tesla is run by a Nazi. It doesn’t deserve to survive. Musk doesn’t give a shit about the environment or saving it. He only cares about his bank balance.

    🖕Musk 🖕Tesla 🖕Nazis

  • burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world
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    51 minutes ago

    one thing to consider is that tesla does not make its money by selling cars, but by selling carbon credits to other companies

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      30 minutes ago

      It’s a major part of their profit margin, but even with their decline this quarter, they’d eek out a profit without it.

      https://carboncredits.com/teslas-carbon-credit-revenue-soars-to-2-76-billion-amid-profit-drop/

      In Q4 2024 alone, Tesla earned $692 million from selling regulatory credits or carbon credits, accounting for nearly 30% of its quarterly net income of $2.33 billion.

      At least for now, they’re keeping their financial head above water even without carbon credits. Of course, no business would willingly throw away 30% of its net income.

      The big thing for them is that those credits are free profit. Other car companies have to buy them to make up for their ICE cars. Tesla doesn’t sell a single ICE car, so everything they make comes with a credit. Mind you, as the market transitions away from ICE, those will naturally evaporate from the company’s ledger.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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        13 minutes ago

        I agree with your comment, but FYI:

        they’d eek out a profit

        eke

        • to make (a living) or support (existence) laboriously:
        • to eke out an income with odd jobs.
  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Tesla cannot be saved until and unless Musk sells his share of the company and completely divorces himself from it. Even that may not be enough, as the brand is so closely associated with Musk that his stain may not wash off, but it’s their only chance.

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      28 minutes ago

      90% of what is keeping Tesla’s value is the tech bro community’s absolute belief in Elmo. If he sold all of his shares the value of the stock would plummet to almost zero. Hell if he even just sold a moderately large portion of his shares the stock price would plummet dramatically. That’s why he’s always so reluctant to sell his stock and basically uses it to leverage loans.

    • EstonianGuy@lemm.ee
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      2 hours ago

      It will, it just takes a lot of years. Lets not forget that Hugo Boss and Volkswagen were nazi germany companies.

      They’re still quite popular even though one made military uniforms and the other vehicles.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        And that can really only begin with his departure from the company. And his divestment.

        A lot of people are going after Tesla because he owns a shit load of it and we want to bury him- not because we particularly care about Tesla.

        Once he’s gone from the company, then they can rebuild, it eh…. He has to leave first.

  • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    One thing that must be made clear to casual observers is that the Tesla stock price is still batshit crazy high.

    The logic to support the price is:

    Your are not buying the current company, you are buying the cool stuff Elon is making in the future.

    Without that leap of faith, the price has to collapse. There is no way an electric car company will ever support even the current stock price.

    There will be a tremendous amount of copium ingested before gravity hits, but the bigger fool theory will have its way.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      I wonder how many people have gone broke trying to short Tesla. It just doesn’t make sense, but apparently the market has an infinite ability to be irrational.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    Even if one of his ideas were to apologize for the nazi salute I think the “saving Tesla” ship has sailed.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Way too late for that. Too many potential customers will now never buy a Tesla as long as he’s associated with the brand in any way. About the only option he has to try to save the brand is to sever all ties with the company and walk away. But his ego will never allow that.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        26 minutes ago

        Honestly I think the real nail in the coffin for that company would be if another company like BYD came in and started selling their EVs on the market. Cause unlike Tesla they make decent cars at affordable prices.

      • piecat@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I would buy a tesla, but only if they fire/disown musk, undo every trace of him, and do a complete 180 politically. Oh and make the cars suck way less.

        • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Even in a very optimistic timeline it would take years for Tesla cars to suck less. I don’t think Tesla has that kind of time any more, now that there’s growing competition from big automakers like Honda & Toyota as well as Hyundai, Volkswagen, etc. and all the other EV companies like Rivian.

          Those established automakers have a long history of innovating & listening to customers. As their expansion into the EV market grows, they’re going to put a lot of pressure on Tesla to innovate as well, and that doesn’t mean bowing to whatever whims the CEO has.

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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            30 minutes ago

            Likely correct on paragraph 1, paragraph 2… not so much.

            The reason tesla was able to get such a foothold was because they were innovating where the established automakers were floundering.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    things really went to shit when he mimicked hitler. maybe in order to reverse it he needs to mimick hitler again. now what did he do to get out of the mess he created for himself?

  • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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    7 hours ago

    All he had to do was shut his fucking mouth. Tesla sells a competitively-price product and has a strong moat with their charging network. He is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, all because he doesn’t know how to STFU.