Twitter has been a catastrophe since Elon Musk purchased the corporate final fall: Promoting {dollars} vanished, the website breaks on a regular basis, and it’s now explicitly a house for the worst individuals on Earth.
And there’s no motive to assume any of it will change so long as Musk owns the factor. As a result of Musk = Twitter. Full cease.
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Effective. What about Tesla, the EV firm that made Musk rich sufficient to purchase Twitter within the first place? That firm has additionally been tightly linked to Musk’s persona, and it looks as if it’s doing simply superb: Tesla says the final three months of 2022 have been its finest quarter ever. We should always get one other replace from the corporate in April.
So right here’s an open query: Will Musk’s habits on Twitter, and as Twitter proprietor, ever impact Tesla?
When you have adopted the Musk Twitter saga fastidiously, you’re nicely conscious of Musk’s penchant for saying and doing stuff you would possibly discover repellent. This month, for example, he publicly mocked a fired worker for his incapacity. The one actual shock about that incident was that Musk ended up apologizing for it, calling it a “misunderstanding.” A couple of days later, Musk began tweeting his help for Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who participated within the January 6 riot and who’s in jail after reaching a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
However individuals on Twitter spend a variety of time considering and speaking about Twitter. Most individuals don’t use Twitter. Do they know or care about what Musk is doing there — and in that case, will it change their opinion about proudly owning a Tesla?
Some information suggests it might already be occurring.
For starters, Tesla is now not the one recreation on the town with regards to EVs. Loads of automakers now compete available in the market, and so they appear to be making headway. A yr in the past, for example, 17 p.c of potential EV patrons instructed surveyors at YouGov that their first alternative was a Tesla — greater than another model. Now that quantity has dropped to 9 p.c, outpaced by each Toyota and BMW.
That sentiment appears to be turning up in precise gross sales, too. Tesla’s US market share declined to 58 p.c within the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 78 p.c a yr earlier.
There are a number of the reason why you would possibly wish to purchase an EV that isn’t a Tesla. YouGov says potential patrons say value is most vital to them, and Teslas have by no means been low cost. Security can be a giant consideration for patrons, and recurring studies of Tesla’s points — like steering wheels falling off and multi-car pile-ups — could not assist.
Whereas YouGov hasn’t requested would-be EV patrons if their opinion of Musk impacts their opinion of Teslas, it has requested the overall inhabitants about their opinion of Tesla — and it has been taking place since final spring, when Musk first introduced that he was going to purchase Twitter, after which spent months attempting to not purchase the corporate. In November, shortly after Musk purchased Twitter, Tesla’s “web favorability” rating turned adverse, which means extra individuals disliked the corporate than favored it.
There’s, nonetheless, potential upside for Musk: Whereas extra individuals dislike Musk than earlier than, extra individuals additionally like Musk than ever earlier than. Whether or not these new Musk followers are Tesla patrons, or will ever turn out to be Tesla patrons, is a query we are able to’t reply in the intervening time.
Once more: It’s potential that an expanded EV market, and the headstart Tesla earned itself by roughly creating that market, will probably be sufficient for Tesla to take pleasure in document gross sales for years to return, no matter Musk’s antics at Twitter.
However it’s been a really very long time since automobile patrons related their automobile buy with the person working the automobile firm — if the phrases “Lee Iacocca” imply something to you, you might be seemingly not a youngster. We’ve by no means had a automobile firm run by a man who’s so hooked on Twitter that he purchased the entire firm. Now we’re working a real-world experiment to determine if that was a good suggestion.
