Musk's antics and distractions are backfiring as Tesla's car business stalls
- Reference: 1751566535
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/03/elon_musk_tesla_deliveries_distraction/
- Source link:
Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move [1]READ MORE
Tesla [2]reported its second quarter production and delivery numbers on Wednesday ahead of full earnings numbers later this month, saying it delivered 384,122 vehicles and produced 410,244 in its second quarter of the year. That's a 14 percent decrease in deliveries from Q2 2024 and the second consecutive year-over-year drop. Deliveries [3]missed the consensus average of analyst expectations as well, though not by very much, and some analysts [4]actually expected worse .
The EV maker's sales had been sputtering for some time as concerns mounted over things like stale inventory, which the Cybertruck [5]didn't help [6]all that much , and Musk's [7]distracting antics at X, which he bought a couple of years ago. The [8]underwhelming delivery of Tesla's invite-only robotaxi pilot fleet in Austin, Texas, likely didn't help much.
Oh, and there's that whole DOGE thing, too.
Musk spent the first few months of Trump's second term acting as his hatchet man in the federal government, heading up a team of innovative youngsters with nicknames like " [9]Big Balls " at the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk and DOGE [10]stirred [11]up [12]considerable [13]controversy together until his [14]appointment expired in May. Some Tesla owners who bought an EV in part for environmental reasons began [15]publicly disavowing the mercurial CEO, buying up anti-Elon bumper stickers to plaster on their buggies.
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But rather than leaving quietly, Musk instead got into a [17]public feud with Trump [18]over the President's budget reconciliation bill, cementing his alienation among both friends and foes of Trump.
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[20]
The President's feud with his ex-BFF got so bad this week that Trump suggested DOGE should be turned against its own Dogefather to see if subsidies granted to Musk's companies, most notably SpaceX, were a waste of federal funds.
"Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa," Trump [21]said in a social media post Tuesday. "No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE."
[22]
Musk, in his usually measured manner, [23]responded by goading Trump to "CUT IT ALL. Now."
When Musk does pay attention to Tesla - which, recall, is only one of several businesses he runs alongside social media network X, rocket company SpaceX, brain implant company Neuralink, and underground tunnel digger The Boring Company - he's [24]reportedly ignoring the regular Tesla cars people actually want to buy in favor of his delayed robotaxis and autonomous Optimus robots, the latter, which have so far shown up primarily in [25]canned [26]demos .
All the [27]marketing speak Musk can muster still doesn't completely hide the reality of the situation.
[28]Tesla sales crash in Europe, UK. We can only wonder why
[29]Tesla fudged odometer to screw me out of warranty, Model Y owner claims
[30]Tesla Robotaxi videos show Elon's way behind Waymo
[31]Tesla FSD ignores school bus lights and hits 'child' dummy in staged demo
The Optimus program is [32]reportedly paused following the [33]departure of its chief, Milan Kovac, in June. Optimus, which Musk previously suggested would be shipping to consumers by 2026, is reportedly in limbo as design changes are made to address the fact that the bots are not even capable of doing the factory work Tesla had hoped for.
It's not clear whether Musk intends to step into that vacant role, but [34]apparently he has already assumed oversight of Tesla's sales in the US and Europe after former VP Omead Afshar departed in late June.
[35]
Whether Musk's [36]deft PR hand will be enough to save Tesla's slumping sales in the [37]US and [38]EU is up to buyers to decide, but it might be a hard sell - according to recent Forrester [39]research , Tesla owners love their cars, but the company "fails to connect with potential buyers," many of whom consider the brand untrustworthy and not worth a purchase. Forrester didn't list reasons for those perceptions, but we can think of a big one, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon unless shareholders decide enough is enough. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/14/musk_twitter_rpc_spat/
[2] https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-second-quarter-2025-production-deliveries-deployments
[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/02/tesla-tsla-q2-2025-vehicle-delivery-and-production-numbers.html
[4] https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-says-tesla-demand-weakness-111407585.html
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/20/tesla_cybertruck_recall/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/24/musk_claims_cybertruck_profitable/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/musk_testimony_tesla/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/tesla_robotaxi_austin/
[9] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-staffer-big-balls-provided-tech-support-cybercrime-ring-records-show-2025-03-26/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/20/musks_doge_promises_fail/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/28/musk_doge_help_companies/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/18/house_democrats_doge/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/doge_goa_probe/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/22/elon_musk_doge/
[15] https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/anti-elon-bumper-sticker-tesla
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aGb9dkfyKu-dPv7f3h52rQAAAk4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/06/musk_trump_feud/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/05/trump_musk_face_off_budget_bill/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aGb9dkfyKu-dPv7f3h52rQAAAk4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aGb9dkfyKu-dPv7f3h52rQAAAk4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114776149269773065
[22] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aGb9dkfyKu-dPv7f3h52rQAAAk4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[23] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1939911208393720002
[24] https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-elon-musk-robotaxi-robots-95ae80a4
[25] https://qz.com/robot-legit-elon-musk-fake-optimus-tesla-demo-astribot-1851457009
[26] https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/13/24269131/tesla-optimus-robots-human-controlled-cybercab-we-robot-event
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/tesla_q2_2024/
[28] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/06/europe_uk_tesla_sales/
[29] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/17/tesla_faked_odometer_data/
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/tesla_robotaxi_austin/
[31] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/30/selfdriving_tesla_accident/
[32] https://electrek.co/2025/07/03/tesla-optimus-shambles-head-of-program-exits-production-delayed/
[33] https://x.com/_milankovac_/status/1931097888995807554
[34] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-01/musk-will-oversee-tesla-s-europe-us-sales-after-afshar-exit
[35] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aGb9dkfyKu-dPv7f3h52rQAAAk4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[36] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/26/musk_snl/
[37] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/10/tesla_electric_car_sales/
[38] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-european-sales-slump-fifth-month-ev-rivals-gain-momentum-2025-06-25/
[39] https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-total-experience-score-2025-rankings-2/
[40] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: #gravy
Is that the gravy that helps the hyperloop trains run?
It's no suprise.
The models are old and dated. The build quality is your average dogshit "Made in the USA" standard. He alienated the "left" (USA left, not rest of world left), but the right want 10 litre tanks.
Put simply there is no compelling reason to buy a Tesla over all the others out there.
Re: It's no suprise.
They're also very much made on the cheap if you know what you're looking for. I wonder if they can even decently self park now because even that Tesla messed up before and that's something that even non EVs got right years ago.
But enough about the car - what I'm interested in is what desperate stunt he's going to pull on the next earnings call to again distract his believers/cult members investors from his failings as he has done every time before to prevent the much needed correction of the stock price towards reality (imho down, by a lot).
Maybe a robotic President to replace Trump? Given that one's limited vocabulary you would not even a large LLM..
Re: It's no suprise.
"what I'm interested in is what desperate stunt he's going to pull on the next earnings call to again distract his believers/cult members investors from his failings as he has done every time before to prevent the much needed correction of the stock price towards reality (imho down, by a lot)."
Invest short term, buy the dips, sell when it recovers. As a long or medium term investment case Tesla is ultra high risk, but if you have the appetite for short term risk, look to benefit from the volatility and the Muskbois inability to see how crap their god is.
Asylum
"Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa"
If Musk gets sent back to South Africa, could he then come back as a refugee and claim asylum under Trump's scheme for Afrikaners in South Africa...
And where is...
...the Musk Salute Obligatory Image?
Tragedy
Oh, the sheer tragedy. Tesla’s Q2 deliveries plummeted a whole 14 percent. And the Cybertruck - that hulking monument to vaporware and vanity - failed, quite spectacularly, to rescue the quarter.
The horror.
One weeps for the afflicted shareholder class, bravely enduring the trauma of a wobbly line on their portfolio chart.
Meanwhile, as the author laments stale inventory and half-baked robotaxis, perhaps - just for a moment - spare a thought for the millions facing actual, daily terror in Ukraine.
Because while Tesla misses targets, Musk’s other toy—X, formerly Twitter—has evolved into something far more consequential than a mere “distraction.” It’s a precision-engineered chaos engine, explicitly enabling Russian state propaganda (as the European Commission itself has starkly documented), warping public discourse, and doing demonstrable harm in the real world. This isn't "antics"; it's a strategic platform for information warfare that actively supports a regime committing atrocities.
To call this "antics" is laughable. These aren’t slip-ups. They’re signals.
And increasingly, those signals are telling potential buyers that driving a Tesla is akin to driving a Volkswagen in the 1930s: a brand deeply entangled with, and implicitly endorsing, deeply disturbing geopolitical realities. Many no longer see a Tesla as a car - but as a rolling endorsement of a man actively platforming a regime engaged in terrorism.
While the article clutches its pearls over missed analyst expectations, it carefully, perhaps even cynically, ignores what those signals enable: the amplification of war crimes, the destabilization of democracies, and suffering on a scale that doesn’t fit neatly into an earnings report. Or a shiny new car for that matter.
But hey - the Cybertruck didn’t move stale inventory. And in some circles, that still counts as the bigger crisis than some war in the middle of Europe.
Re: Tragedy
"Many no longer see a Tesla as a car - but as a rolling endorsement of a man actively platforming a regime engaged in terrorism." That would be me. I see a tesla, especially the new ones with the name spelled out along the butt of the car and have a single thought, MAGAT.
Re: Tragedy
I'm not in the US, so when I see one here in rural France, I just think "what a wanker".
Re: Tragedy
Which is fine, I suspect the same is true here in the UK. Elon has managed to completely kill the brand.
"Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history..." Trump said
That's just sour grapes talking.
Hey DOGE - take a look at what Trump is charging/costing for his frequent visits to the golf course and what he charges the secret service for putting up the operatives who are there to protect him
Hasn't he moved on .?
America party and all that ?
Re: Hasn't he moved on .?
America party and all that ?
Do you think for; one second that this will actually happen?
Re: Hasn't he moved on .?
Yes, just after the cage fight with Zuck, the hyperloop, the manned trip to Mars, X having free speech and his trans kid sending him a "Best Dad In The World" mug.
BFF
BFF - ah, yes, I see what you did there
Its worse than the numbers indicate
Nearly half of the deliveries were in June, so there's probably some channel stuffing given the excess of production vs deliveries. You can't keep producing more than you deliver (they did it in Q1 also) as you aren't paid for cars sitting on lots outside the factory.
Still they should worry more about the fact that Tesla's robotaxi had more driving violations in its first few days with a handful of cars than Waymo's entire fleet has had since they started operating in the state of Texas. And that NHSTA has started looking into it - and Musk no longer has an "in" in the government to tell them to back off like he did a few months ago when he made all the previous actions go away (and who knows, those "gone away" actions might come back since Trump is signaling to his underlings that Musk is no longer one of the protected in crowd.
Might have considered a Tesla in bygone years, but opted for a much preferable/superior Hyundai IONIQ 5 when we retired our last ICE vehicle. EV only for us from now on. BTW, yes, that's me outside the Tesla dealer on Saturdays, joining the "Tesla Takedown" crowd. I don't fault those that own Teslas (well, maybe Cybertruck owners), but do have major issues with the owner/management. Shedding no tears...
#gravy
What about Grok? Surely that will be a Gravy Train...