After his purchase of Twitter, the talk was about how Elon was going to destroy Twitter. Instead, he’s destroying Tesla as a brand. Twitter will do just fine since its business model is based on engagement and people love to be outraged. Tesla benefited from an inflated valuation in part by the belief in Musk’s competence. Sone of us bought our Teslas despite the public, childish antics of Musk because we saw the company itself as competent and forward-facing.
Clearly the timing of musk’s public coming out party as a troll has been terrible. He’s made himself the face of the worst of Twitter just as other carmakers have begun to actually produce EVs. He’s done it just after Tesla rose their prices like mad, which already pushed their cars out of range for a lot of families, and just as more public chargers have been installed, making the supercharger network less important. It doesn’t help that Tesla is also charging significantly more to charge per kWh than everyone else.
It is remarkable how many people defend his Twitter behavior, but then it’s clear that a not insignificant percentage of people relish in being impolite, rude, and generally boorish, I suppose because it makes them feel better about themselves, or perhaps helps them stave off their fear of death. What a way to live your one, short life.
www.wsj.com
