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zfg

Twitter's already got something to tackle:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elo...

I don't think Musk is helping Tesla sales in Europe.

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I see no problem with his "salute". I'm glad more and more people are rejecting this kind of brainwashing by the media.

These people also don't see a problem with it: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-mus...

And this person similarly doesn't see a problem with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tlenyBWs4w&t=88s

Are you breathing? These people did that too. Doesn't it concern you?

I prefer arguing about the actual policies, I refuse to be concerned "by association".

Trump rescinding the EV mandate is hardly likely to help Tesla sales _in the US_, and yet they're standing on the same platform.

As far as I can tell Elon seem to have lost interest and doesn't care much anymore about Tesla as a Car company the moment where he realized it likely will be just one of many E-Car companies and he likely won't win the race to full self driving in any in a larger picture dominant way.

But Trump in the past multiple times said more or less "he will stop EV mandates and move the subventions over to battery development and production". I.e. if he doesn't just do the first half it means subventions move from profiting a variety to car companies to mainly profiting Tesla(as a battery company).

I.e. this seems long term beneficial for him.

>Elon seem to have lost interest and doesn't care much anymore about Tesla as a Car company

I doubt it. The Cybertruck proves he's trying to keep the brand fresh and interest in it alive.

Of course, Tesla's monopoly on EV wasn't gonna last forever since the other makers were inevitably gonna catch up sooner or later.

the Cybertruck was a PR disaster and isn't exactly a "new product" either, in my opinion this change of heart came a bit after the release of the Cybertruck

It's a testbed for new innovations at Tesla and halo product designed to attract attention, not a mass market product. Especially since it's not globally available officially due to regulations on safety, it makes it a highly desirable status symbol due to this exclusivity.

Halo products are important for brands as they seed the perception over the rest of the models of the brand, becoming viral free advertising. Same why Mercedes races in F1 even though their F1 cars and related tech have nothing in common with the road cars.

The Cybertruck is whatever the opposite of a halo product is, a lemon that is becoming a byword for badly thought out design when a leader is allowed to go unchallenged.

The market might disagree with your take. Plenty of exotics like the Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari F40 and Porsche Carrera GT had some crazy design faults that would cause expensive reliability issues or could even get the driver killed (see the Paul Walker case), and that didn't hinder their high desirability or valuation, quite the contrary. That's the power of a a halo product.

What I read is that Musk believes Tesla has reached a point where they have enough economies of scale and mature enough processes and infrastructure that they can sell at a price without subsidies that is competitive with non-EVs and still makes them a nice profit.

His competitors are still taking a loss on their EV sales, and he believes that they cannot afford to lower prices and so the loss of subsidies will greatly harm them.

Even if the loss of subsidies do reduce the number of EVs sold per year, Tesla stands to get a larger percentage of that market.

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