elon musk

We take our cheap & high mileage Tesla Model 3 from boring commuter appliance to rally-inspired snow demon thanks to a host of upgrades.

With orders and demand stagnating, Tesla is looking to generate some interest in its Cybertruck models, lowering prices on all three versions by at least $20,000. Now the base model begins at $59,990.

Tesla took a sales hit in 2025. Was it just because of the expiration of the EV tax credit?

A mix of declining sales and new product expenditures combined to cut Tesla Inc.’s full-year and fourth-quarter earnings results, with the electric vehicle maker posting drops in revenue and profit but offering a rosy outlook.

In the latest display of childish petulance at the automotive meme that is Tesla, it is being suggested by the company’s chair that Elon Musk could leave the joint if shareholders don’t approve the eye-popping $1 trillion compensation package being requested by Musk.

Tesla recently unveiled the new Model Y Performance, showing an updated electric SUV with 460 horsepower, two motors, and a 3.3-second 0-60 mph time. While impressive, it’s unclear if the new EV will help Tesla’s sliding sales in Europe, where the new Model Y debuted.

Tesla rejected a $60 million settlement offer in a lawsuit over a 2019 fatal accident involving a Model S, but the outcome of the trial wasn’t favorable for the automaker. It has been ordered to pay $243 million in damages over the accident.

When Apple aired its now-legendary “1984” ad on January 22, 1984, during a commercial break in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, it wasn’t just as a tease for its Macintosh computer, which was unveiled two days later at a shareholder event in Cupertino. The ad also positioned Apple against IBM

Facing several periods of falling sales, Tesla is pulling out all the stops to drive interest in its electric vehicles. The automaker is offering deals on every vehicle it sells, including hefty price cuts and other incentives.

Tesla began a small-scale rollout of its Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, over the weekend, marking a significant step forward for the automaker’s autonomous vehicle ambitions. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is collecting data on the program, but Tesla recently told the government agency not to publicly disclose any of the information it gathers.

Tesla boss Elon Musk and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, are fighting on social media. This comes shortly after Musk's time as a special government employee came to an end.

Imagine going back in time and telling your 2013 self this.

We started hearing rumbles that Elon Musk’s time in Washington was coming to a close a couple of weeks ago, but the process now appears to be well underway. Late yesterday, an official told Reuters that Musk would be leaving the administration and that his “off-boarding will begin tonight.”

Tesla hasn’t always accepted trade-ins or allowed leaseholders to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease term, which impacted the Cybertruck. It was unable to be traded in for a new Tesla purchase, but the automaker recently opened the door for owners to trade their controversial EVs for a less polarizing model.

Though it was heavily delayed, the Tesla Cybertruck quickly became the best-selling electric pickup once it finally arrived. While it’s still selling, the Tesla has been overtaken by a legacy brand’s electric truck, dropping into the number-two spot behind the Ford F-150 Lightning.

Tesla initially promised impressive range numbers of more than 500 miles for the Cybertruck, but the automaker recently decided to kill off the range-extending battery it needed to deliver those numbers.

One of the questions that keeps coming up about Elon Musk and Tesla is why the automaker’s board would allow him to remain CEO after such bumpy performances and so much drama over the last year. However, while it’s unlikely the board would remove Musk as chief executive, a recent report from the Wall Street Journal shows that the wheels of succession might be turning at Tesla. Before going too far, however, it's important to note that both Musk and the Tesla board have vehemently denied the reports, accusing the WSJ of publishing false stories.

In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has drawn criticism from all angles over his involvement with Donald Trump’s White House as the government presses forward with its deportation and cost-cutting efforts, but one of his former employees alleges that he may have been eying immigration status as a way to exact revenge on his naysayers years earlier. A Tesla engineer who was fired in 2014 said that Musk threatened to deport her entire team when she raised a braking safety issue to him directly.

A California Tesla owner has filed a lawsuit that alleges the automaker sped up his vehicle’s odometer, causing the warranty to expire faster than it would have normally. Plaintiff Nyree Hinton said the automaker’s odometer readings don’t reflect actual mileage, and instead rely on driving behavior, algorithms, and energy consumption to calculate mileage.

Due to its U.S.-heavy oper Add Anchor text here ations, Tesla is expected to weather the tariff storm better than other automakers, but reciprocal actions from the Chinese government have caused some headaches for the American company. Tesla recently stopped taking new vehicle orders for the Model S and Model X in China, a move that follows China’s announcement that it would enact 125 percent tariffs on imported U.S. goods starting April 12.

I had to run an errand midday today and saw, not for the first time in the past two months, a Tesla with a bumper sticker on it saying "I Bought This Before Elon Was Crazy" or something to that effect.

Like all public companies, Tesla reports quarterly revenue and delivery numbers, but despite expectations of a poor showing, the automaker’s first-quarter stats are worse than expected. It saw a 13 percent drop in vehicle deliveries from 2024’s numbers, and that follows one of the worst quarters the company’s stock has ever seen.

According to CNBC, Wall Street analysts have Tesla pegged as a car company that will benefit from President Donald Trump's tariffs.

The Austin American Statesman reports that multiple incendiary devices were found at an Austin-area Tesla showroom yesterday.

By way of a social media post, President Donald Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric about anyone caught vandalizing a Tesla. Specifically, he suggested shipping those people to the prisons of El Salvador.

To put it lightly, Tesla is facing a few challenges right now, but it just added another line to its list of things to worry about. The automaker recently recalled more than 46,000 Cybertrucks for an issue that could cause parts of its body to fly off while driving.

President Trump recently declared that vandalizing a Tesla store or vehicles would be considered an act of domestic terrorism, and at least one person in Las Vegas may be the first to test his words. A handful of Tesla cars were found on fire at a dealer in the city early Tuesday morning, and police said the person fired shots into other vehicles on the lot.

President Donald Trump said he'd buy a Tesla to support his friend Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, because Musk has been under fire for his involvement in the Department of Government Efficiency.

There have even been protests at Tesla showrooms.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been running something called the Department of Government Efficiency since President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second stint as commander-in-chief.

DOGE, which is a quasi-government agency -- it was created by executive order and it's not clear that a president can do so legally, but let's leave that aside for now -- is supposed to root out waste and fraud in the federal government.

Tesla sales seem to be sliding.

Why?

Tesla has come out with more details about its robotaxi program, promising to have the autonomous cars on the streets of Austin, Texas, by June.

We'll see what happens.

Back in 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had accumulated so much Twitter stock that he held more than five percent of the company’s stock. That development could have given Twitter a significant stock market boost if Musk had promptly reported his ownership, but a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit alleges that he did not, essentially cheating investors out of more than $150 million.

Elon Musk fans, and Musk himself, have taken to social media to claim that the mainstream media is biased against the Tesla Cybertruck because of how the explosion of a Cybertruck in Las Vegas was covered. They've been comparing it the coverage of the involvement of a Ford pickup truck in a terror attack in New Orleans, and claiming reasonable differences in how the events were covered are somehow a signifier of anti-Tesla bias.

As if often the case with these sorts of things, it's a bunch of bull dung.

It appears that the incoming Trump administration might loosen some regulations around autonomous vehicles.

According to reports, members of the transition team for President-elect Trump are planning to make building a framework for fully self-driving vehicles a priority within the DOT.

Just a bit ago, I reported on the possibility that Donald Trump might kill the EV tax credit when he becomes president of the United States for the second time.

Now, I ask of you, dear reader -- should he?

We'll be poking around the issue ourselves, and perhaps writing about it -- but I also wanted to pick your brains. What does the Trump victory mean for Tesla?

And, perhaps, Tesla's competitors?

Tesla had its big robotaxi reveal last night.

Even when one is on vacation in another country, it can be hard to disengage from American political news, especially during a presidential election year.

Following a livestream event on X (formerly known as Twitter) in which Elon Musk and Donald Trump talked about a variety of topics, the UAW has filed federal labor charges against them claiming remarks were made with an intent to threaten and intimidate union workers.

It's a brief topic on our podcast today, but I have to wonder why the head honcho at an automaker that solely makes EVs is endorsing the presidential candidate whose administration will most likely be less favorable towards the technology should he win.

Hey all! It's podcast time again!

Things are getting a little bumpy at Tesla. The automaker’s first-quarter delivery numbers raised eyebrows, undercutting even the most critical expectations by a notable margin. Now, rumors are swirling about Tesla’s employee base, with some telling Electrek that the automaker plans to cut as much as 10 percent of its workforce in what would amount to thousands of layoffs.

Yesterday, we covered Tesla boss Elon Musk refuting a Reuters report that the company is canceling its affordable EV. Musk also said that Tesla will be unveiling robotaxis this summer.

Marijuana is legal in several states, and you can even order ketamine from a Facebook ad. What you do behind closed doors is, in most cases, your business, but what about if you’re the CEO of several companies with combined values in the hundreds of billions of dollars? That’s a question Tesla’s board members are facing, as CEO Elon Musk’s alleged drug use has been plastered across the internet and news stations everywhere.

Now that I've had nearly a week to digest the Tesla Cybertruck news, I've come to the conclusion that the Cybertruck will neither revolutionize the automotive market nor be such a flop that it kills Tesla.

Elon Musk has no trouble generating words, both the ones that come out of his mouth (and keyboard fingers) and the ones that breathlessly recap the first type. There was the post on X agreeing with an antisemitic statement, though Musk later apologized. More recently, the controversial CEO shared his thoughts (again) on unions, saying that he believes a Tesla employee union would be a mistake, among many other statements.

Elon Musk’s Twitter – umm, X – finger has led him into quite a bit of controversy over the years, including some that ended in the courtroom. Earlier this year, Musk echoed claims that a California college student was involved in a public confrontation between two neo-Nazi groups in Oregon. That turned out not to be true, but the Tesla CEO tweeted about it anyway, and the victim at the center of the hoax is now suing.

There are photos on the Intertoobz of the Tesla Cybertruck testing, undisguised, in California.

Mr. Guy wrote this morning about Tesla and how it appears that the company's cars are being sold to rental fleets. As most of you know, large fleet sales are often seen as a negative mark on the health of a company and can also tank resale values.

There’s never any shortage of topics to discuss about Tesla – whether it’s nattering about Musk’s behavior, the company stock price, or its hands-off driving aids allegedly causing a pile-up on a busy motorway. 

This morning, a pundit tweeted they saw beaucoup de Tesla sitting idle at a Hertz location, suggesting the company may be stuffing rental channels in a bid to inflate sales. In quick succession, it then became clear that Tesla has slashed prices on all its models – big time.

Stop me if you've heard this before -- Elon Musk tweeted something that has him and/or one of his companies in trouble with regulators.

As I wrote a week or two ago, the outside world is finally catching on to what automotive journalists, industry analysts, and car enthusiasts have long known about Tesla. This week, two columns in The New York Times showed that well-known pundits like Farhad Manjoo and Paul Krugman are catching on/catching up.

Ever since Tesla boss Elon Musk took over Twitter, he's found himself mired in controversy, often of his own making.

I've been following the Elon Musk Twitter drama relatively closely. In part because I use Twitter on a personal level, in part because TTAC has an official account, in part because of Musk's connection to this industry, and in part because I care about misinformation/disinformation.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has sold 19.5 million Tesla shares worth almost $4 billion since he took over Twitter, according to regulatory filings.

Stellantis is now among the ranks of large companies that have paused or pulled advertising on Twitter.

Earlier this week, General Motors pulled its Twitter advertising. Now Volkswagen Auto Group is following suit. The company is recommending that its brands pause advertising on Twitter for the time being.

When I posted Friday's QOTD, I was wondering if perhaps I was overthinking things. I wondered how Tesla boss Elon Musk owning Twitter -- a social-media platform used by Tesla's competitors -- would affect the automotive industry and the automotive press.

Apparently, I am not the only one with concerns.

It's official. Tesla boss Elon Musk now owns Twitter, one of the most influential social media platforms.