I've always thought something smells about the company talking about sustainable transportation as their primary motto, and then taking its sweeeet time designing falcon doors on an suv which is not even that much either of a sport or utility, yet sets an average citizen back 2.5 to 3 years of his/her average US income (assuming he/she doesn't eat or pay taxes). Or spending time on promoting flame throwers for that matter.
Yes, I understand that in the current system where the costs of climate change and pollution are not directly charged by the market to contributors, and the system values only immediate short-term human gratification, the goal of sustainable transportation is predicated on building a business well valued by this myopic market system.
Yet i still think there was plenty tongue-in-cheek in company actions vs. stated goals. A lot of liquidity problems came from over-engineering attempts of a 13 yr old in a grown man body who simply doesn't know when (or simply want) to stop playing and start working on a goal. He keeps telling of importance of "having fun in the process", well, yes it is important, but not if it significantly sets back the very real cancer treatment we need!
The only redeeming feature in all this is the super charging framework. That's a move toward the "sustainable". I can forgive a lot for this. Even more so because everybody else failed to do it.
That said, i don't think they were particularly unaware of this coming, so i see no drama. Also, we should recall the times when an IBM PC that could run a 2 minute NTSC clip was worth $4.5k in 25-year-ago moneys. Yet now i can build a computer 3 orders of magnitude the specs of that for $500.
With time, new technical advances do tend to become a commodity. So I am not particularly concerned about eventual commoditizing EVs and charging networks. Objectively, they eventually should be cheaper (at least per hour of service) and run longer than current generation of cars, EVs or ICE.
Bottom line, i do like Tesla, but i somewhat less than adore Elon. He has access to a significant resource of mankind, and with this must come responsibility. I think the company would have done a bit better if his impulses were better reviewed and kept in check.
My final thought about this email is this.
I have always failed to understand why execs feel a need to put a message of great past acheivements and glorious company future goals along with the message that for some of its people these goals and achievements will not matter anymore.
It's always felt like a surgeon telling the patient, look, i have take out one of your kidneys, so you will have significantly tougher times ahead of you, at least in immediate short term. But look at the bright side! By doing that to you i am a little closer to putting my kids through college! Everybody understands why layoffs are sometimes necessary, and they will happen to anyone working for a salary once in a while. No need to rub it in. Keep your motivational speeches apart from the message that should in fact contain apology, if only out of common decency.
