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by angusb 478 days ago
Over 50% of Tesla's sales are model Y which is going through a version upgrade at the moment. The new version is widely publicised, much better than the old one, and will be available in the next few months. Why would you buy a model Y now?

A big dip was also observed during the model 3 upgrade in Q1 2024.

Everybody is obsessing so much over Elon's behaviour right now that they are glossing over important other factors.
1 comments
techorange 477 days ago
99 times out of 100 I would say boycotts don’t matter that much, certainly not to 45% of sales.

An interesting counter to that though is that Elon Musk’s whole marketing strategy has been to be the lead marketer and do no advertising (until recently)

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EasyMark 477 days ago
Elon is Tesla, and his popularity is declining rapidly. I don't think it's a boycott, it just avoiding guilty by association driving a vehicle that is strongly associated with someone who is currently the biggest clown in Washington, and not the funny type. the type that aims to hurt veterans, cut medicine to old folks, and decimate the future of social security, all to lower taxes and regulations on billionaires.
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skissane 477 days ago
Also: Musk is in the headlines a lot right now with DOGE, but DOGE is officially a “temporary organization” which expires mid next year, plus Musk is employed by the White House using a status (special government employee) which only allows him to work for 130 days out of 365.

So, it seems plausible DOGE at some point might declare “mission accomplished” and be dissolved. Musk might step back from his White House role and spend more time on his companies. And then consumers may start to forget about all this… some new political controversy not involving Musk might take its place in the short attention span of the general public

Of course, maybe Musk will find the White House too addictive and find a way to sidestep all those time limits and become a permanent fixture in this administration (assuming also that Trump doesn’t tire of him at some point)-in which case this might be a longer-term weight around Tesla’s neck. We don’t know what’s going to happen

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