[pfannkuchen]

So what I have seen him say and do seems genuine and I don’t really think this is happening, but what if the environmentally aware types market is saturated and he is trying to push the brand into a new demographic— pickup truck buyers, I suppose, and interestingly they have a pickup truck planned as well…

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Most competent businesspeople can manage to expand their offerings into other markets without alienating the existing ones. Emphasis on "competent."

[pfannkuchen]

If hubris were to creep up on anyone, I'd say the richest man on Earth is a good candidate for it.

[DoreenMichele]

Formerly richest man.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/elon-musk-is-no-longer-the-r...

/pedant

[pfannkuchen]

I think you are assuming the hubris arrived only recently...

[DoreenMichele]

No, no, I'm merely being pedantic and correcting your inaccurate characterization of him.

I have no doubt that hubris is a longstanding character defect in his case.

[dallyo]

That's an interesting take on the situation. I find it hard to believe though - for one thing it would be a huge risk to reorientate your brand like that, and also the designs for their pickups are not exactly conservative. (Incidentally I have a pre-order for the cybertruck - it was only 100EUR, and refundable, so kind of a casual decision. No news on when they will be available still though!).

[pfannkuchen]

It depends on whether it impacts “repeat purchases” or “first time test drives”. I could see the political stuff impacting the latter significantly more than the former, assuming the product is good. But again I don’t think it’s actually happening, it would be too Machiavellian for reality.

[dallyo]

I think it will impact both - surely a lot of the potential repeat purchases are from people that had ethical motivations to buy an electric car - they probably wont give up on electric, but there are a number of good alternative options now on the market.

[pfannkuchen]

I think it basically boils down to whether the political stuff can cause a significant portion of the existing user base to start boycotting the brand. That sounds kind of extreme given the situation but I am not completely in touch with mainstream media driven perception.