This is both its greatest asset and its cross: without Elon Musk, his visions, his slaughter and his charisma, Tesla would never have succeeded in brutalizing the auto giants as it began to do a while ago. sixteen years after he had taken control of it to the sneers of skeptics. Conversely, without the excesses and sometimes risky initiatives of its boss, the company would sail on an ocean of serenity much more conducive to business and its shareholders.
It still happens that Musk prides himself on ferrying humans to Mars – in a few years, his company Space X has become, to the amazement of its rivals, a major player in the conquest of space. Or that he aims to interface brains with hard drives – according to him, the first brain chips from Neuralink, his transhumanist start-up, will be implanted in humans before the end of the year. But some of his choices look like fads. Why have Tesla produce a humanoid robot, Optimus, in which no one believes anymore, even though its autonomous cars are struggling to cross intersections without a hitch? Why buy the social network, Twitter, already in bad shape, to restore Donald Trump’s account and fire half of his engineers?
The financial markets like strong, determined mouths. They proved it by making Elon Musk one of the two richest men in the world in 2022, with a fortune hovering around $180 billion. But they also like consistency and stability. They showed it to him, brutally, by more than halving the value of Tesla stock, which fell from $381 in April 2022 to $179 a year later.
Hit by the Chinese
The lunar tribulations of its general manager are not the only ones in question. The autopilot system developed by Tesla is mocked at length in hilarious videos on social networks. After a few publicized accidents – some of which were fatal, which is much less funny – the brand entered the crosshairs of the United States justice and administration. Which also take a dim view of the malfunctions of its batteries, the power steering or the reversing lights. It’s very simple: since last January, the manufacturer had to recall some 320,000 vehicles, angering the Consumer Reports association, which judged that “manufacturing quality continues to be a problem at Tesla. “.
Moreover, its pricing policy has become blurred. Top of the range until then, it has been shaken up by the irruption of Chinese manufacturers, including BYD, the world’s number 2 in electricity, with more accessible products. Result: the prices of the American brand have fallen by 10% in Europe, by 20% in China and the United States, where the Model 3 now sells for around $44,000 “only” (€41,000), confusing distributors and customers.
Hot on the heels of China’s BYD, SAIC and Geely and Europe’s Volkswagen Group and Stellantis, Tesla nevertheless retained its position as the world’s number one electric car last year, with 1,313,851 units sold, 40% more than in 2021. In a rapidly expanding competitive universe, this remains a performance. Elon Musk rejoiced in his own way, last March. “Driving a gasoline-powered vehicle will soon be like riding a horse,” he laughed. Today, we believe it.