Musk steers Tesla toward a dim future
Tesla’s first-quarter sales in 2025 fell a hefty 13% year over year—and in a climate where global electric vehicle sales are increasing. For comparison, General Motors saw 94% growth in first-quarter EV sales, and Ford was up 12%.
Tesla is blaming the retooling of its Model Y compact SUV, but given that Tesla didn’t sell all the vehicles it produced (362,615 manufactured and 336,681 delivered), it’s clear that the company’s problems weren’t supply. It’s a demand issue.
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Tesla sold only 17,161 vehicles in its “other” category, which includes the expensive Model X and Model S vehicles as well as … that Cybertruck monstrosity.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who functions as co-president to Donald Trump, once claimed 1 million Cybertruck reservations and that Tesla would be selling 250,000 per year. Since entering production in November 2023, Tesla has sold barely more than 46,000 units, according to a recent Cybertruck recall. For comparison, in 2024, Honda sold that many CR-Vs in six weeks, according to Motor Trend. The Cybertruck is a flop.
And things will certainly be even worse once Tesla announces its financial results since the company heavily discounted its vehicles to move inventory, which should eat into its margins.
Bizarrely, its stock price was up nearly 5% after the announcement. Apparently, investors expected worse numbers. Despite that, the stock has fallen 44% from its all-time high, in the middle of December.
Tesla’s price-to-earnings ratio—the amount of money investors pay for every $1 in earnings—is estimated to be 115.72 for 2025, according to the Nasdaq Composite. Ratios like that happen when investors expect massive growth. But what happens when there is no growth? What happens when sales and revenue start falling?
For context, compare that Tesla to 2025 estimates for Apple (30.74), Microsoft (29.26), and Alphabet/Google (17.83), or for major car companies like Ford (7.42), Honda (6.72), or General Motors (4.11). Once investors decide that Tesla stock is no longer a growth stock, forget it.
That’s why Musk has all sorts of schemes to justify Tesla’s sky-high valuations. There’s the robo-taxi service that is supposed to roll out this June in Austin. Tesla announced a Cybercab that won’t go into production until 2026 (that timeline will definitely slip), and then there are those creepy robot things.
But who lives in Austin? Liberals. Why would they use Tesla’s car service when they could use Uber/Lyft or Waymo’s self-driving cabs? (Waymo is an Alphabet company, and their vehicles are a joy to ride in.) In fact, all of Tesla’s potential robo-taxi expansion cities are liberal outposts. Aside from getting operator licenses from hostile city governments, what kind of market does Tesla expect to find as Trump actively undermines everything those liberals care about? Good luck launching Tesla robo-taxis in the exurban and rural places where conservatives tend to live.
Tesla’s brand reputation is now comically bad. According to YouGov’s brand-reputation tracker, Tesla is now the second-to-last car company, with only 9% of U.S. adults saying they’d consider buying one. For comparison, 39% would consider buying the top brand, Toyota.
The last-place brand? Buick.
Who knew Buick was even around anymore?