Investors aren't feeling Musk's attempt to reinvent Tesla.
  • kalleboo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    52·
    1 month ago

    As always, people have short memories, or just do not give a shit about ethics

    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/business/tesla-elon-musk-europe.html

    Tesla’s vehicle sales rose 77 percent from January through May compared with a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said this week. In May, Tesla sold 22,000 cars in Europe. That’s more than Ford, Nissan or Honda, even when including their fossil-fuel models.

    Many people seem to have put aside their personal feelings about Mr. Musk after Tesla cut prices for its entry-level models to levels that are competitive with comparable gasoline or diesel vehicles and inexpensive cars from China. In some countries, Tesla’s Model Y sport utility vehicles can be leased for less than 300 euros, or about $340, a month.

    “Once you go down the pricing scale, people pay less attention to ethics or morality,” said Matthias Schmidt, an independent analyst in Berlin who tracks electric vehicles sales. “Tesla’s product has become so appealing from a price perspective, it’s almost too good to refuse.”

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.netEnglish
      291·
      1 month ago

      I remember Tesla sales dropping after this

      so I hoped people are still capable of using ethics when making financial decisions but it looks like I was wrong.

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      18·
      1 month ago

      The people I know who bought one don’t give a shit about ethics. They stayed away from them for as long as they were socially unacceptable, but as soon as the storm blew over they saw their chance to buy one.

      Just… a data point. My experience is that at least 20% of a population doesn’t care about stuff like this. They care about their own social status, but not ethics.

      • 0tan0d@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 month ago

        Targeting 20 percent of the population isn’t the type of business model that puts your stock this far above all the established automakers though. The correction on the junk stock can’t come soon enough.

        • jj4211@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 month ago

          I want you to be right, but I’m more skeptical. I see all over the place companies explicitly targeting a profitable subset: the biggest suckers of the available suckers. Higher margin, fewer whiny customers. Bonus points if it creates a cult-like fanbase (a lot of big brands manage to cultivate this).

          Saw a story where a company explicitly had a strategy of “increase prices by 10x, and it may scare off 90% of customers, but the 10% left will be a wonderful gold mine”. Particularly shortages in the tech industry swayed a lot of folks that advocated for high-volume, low-margin to low-volume, high-margin.

          So if 20% are ride-or-die for Tesla and Musk, then it might be a decent enough move to double down on those 20%.