To update readers on my 2025 harbingers posted on January 7, the title nails one thing: “2025 in One Word: DOWZH,”. Declaration: Victory.
Some Fans Turn on Their Man
One result is the schism between Elon Musk and his Tesla-buying fan base. However, I will say this: except for the most heinous criminals on the planet, there are always things to admire about people, and the thing I admire in Musk is pressing on with his convictions without fear.
I must have some weird or defective gene because I find it amusing when fans turn on their man, like when Green Bay Packers fans turned on their golden boys, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers, when they left the team. I was a rabid Michael Jordan fan from 1981 until he retired for good from the Washington Wizards in 2003. I didn’t care what jersey he wore. You can find MJ’s stats here, but the only stat that matters is six for six championships, twice as many as Larry Bird. Boom!
Figure 1 The Best
The New York Times chronicles the love, deranged hate, and divorce of Tesla owners in one of the most Tesla-dense areas of the country, Mill Valley, California. As you might imagine, it’s an impoverished community of 83% white people between the bay and the mountains north of San Francisco.
This quote from the Times article, In Marin County, There’s Trouble in Teslaville, succinctly summarizes the roots of the marriage: “A few years ago, buying a Tesla in Mill Valley meant that you had money, but were not overly showy. It meant you were a progressive environmentalist who had style. It meant you belonged.” That is eerily reminiscent of a scene from Henry Hill in Goodfellas.
Diversity? Equity? Inclusion? It doesn’t get more exclusively monochrome than that.
Musk Derangement
Musk derangement includes vandalizing parked Teslas and stores. This makes perfect sense: Destroy the assets of a person who is most likely politically aligned. There are many Teslas in the La Crosse community where I live, and I can’t fathom judging the owners, let alone vandalizing their property. This is crazy and should be denounced by all.
Mill Valley folks can’t seem to separate a thing (an EV) from a person who built the company that designed and built the thing. Teslas are now a source of internal conflict for many owners, representing a clash between environmental ideals and distaste for Musk. Protests are breaking out, including flag and banner waving on freeway overpasses. And get this: in this elite community, even nursing home residents get involved, “Seniors for Peace has added Tesla to its list of grievances during the group’s Friday protests outside an assisted living center.” Do the Seniors for Peace know Tesla dealerships are being firebombed?
The exclusive white ranks go to the ends of the earth to distance themselves from their skewered former hero. They plaster their Teslas with anti-Elon stickers and magnets but get hacked off by others who place “Stop Elon” trading cards under the wiper blades of their suddenly loathsome set of wheels. I sympathize with anyone ticked off with leaflets added to my car. Patooey on that!
Some Mill Valley Tesla owners howl in pain, as though they are stuck in an abusive relationship with their multi-year Tesla leases. Others sell their Tesla into a vacuum of buyers at worse-than-fire-sale prices. The Times article notes that Terry Ross sold his Tesla at a major financial loss. Heather Barberie is financially unable to part with her Tesla and removed the front logo for anonymity. Oh, yeah! That will conceal your pagan virtue, for sure. Carter Zinn came to his senses and ultimately acknowledged Tesla’s technological benefits, opting not to destroy his golden calf.
Thank Musk, the Pioneer
I ask myself, what would the EV market share look like today without Elon Musk? The answer is zero. There would be no “zero-emission” vehicles.
Personalities v Results
Readers are encouraged to think and act as they wish, but I suggest separating personalities from results and considering the future. We occasionally lose talented folks. Do I get angry and tell departing folks not to let the door hit them on the behind on their way out? No! People leave for many reasons. Good people leave because they see a better fit somewhere else. They may come back. They can and often are advocates for Michaels Energy with their new company.
A Stock Picker’s Roulette Wheel
What’s the future for Tesla and EVs? Man, that’s hard, even for this fearless gambler to predict because, as I quoted five years ago, “Consumers don’t want EVs. They want a Tesla.” That wasn’t 100% fact, but probably 75% fact.
I also wouldn’t try to catch the TSLA tumbling knife. Tesla’s board of directors doesn’t seem capable of making up its collective mind as to whether it wants to oust Musk as CEO. The Wall Street Journal reported, “board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive.” In the same article, the Journal reported that the Tesla board chair stated on X, “The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the Board is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead.” I.e., they are scared of Musk.
Figure 2 Automaker Stock Market Cap vs. Sales
Tesla is the only profitable non-Chinese maker of EVs. Will Musk derangement take down the entire EV industry? I’ll bet all the EV-chasing automakers hope so because they hemorrhage cash on every sale, $70k at a time.
