Tesla's Uncertain EV Future and Musk's Political Plays

If I'm a shareholder and I'm not, I, I think the thing that would make me most nervous beyond all that, and those are great points, is that there was no mention of electric vehicles about furthering the products, about lowering the price, about hitting targets. Where is Tesla's plan in terms of evolving Tesla in terms of electric vehicles? Well, that's, that's a great point because it's, it's true in the last year or so, or even the last few months, he's really changed the narrative away from electric vehicles. And now he's talking about, as you mentioned, robots and all that kind of stuff. And if I was an investor, that would give me pause also because the big argument for Tesla a year or so ago was that they were going to someday sell 20 million cars a year, be twice as big as Toyota. And that doesn't seem to be the goal anymore. He did make some mention of electric cars. They showed a picture with a couple of models under wraps, suggesting that there's more to come. But we really don't have any many details. And it is, in the final analysis, a car company and that's where it makes most of its money. Is there any succession plan at Tesla? And I ask that because one of the other stories that we've been covering about Musk recently is that Donald Trump, if he does win the election, might be interested in bringing Musk into the White House. That's, I have a lot of trouble imagining that, to be honest. Trump as, I mean, Musk as a as a politician. But we'll see. Yeah. I don't know what to say to that. We'll we just have to see if Trump gets elected and whether they really stay buddies and whether Musk would have any political role. How important are the two to their future? How important is it that Musk has Donald Trump's backing and vice versa? Well, I think if Trump is elected, I mean, he had been speaking very negatively about electric vehicles. And the Biden administration has has instituted a lot of policies to promote electric vehicles. And the worry among people who believe in electric vehicles was that Trump would get into office and throw all that into reverse. So if he becomes if Trump becomes buddies with Musk and starts to become a believer in electric vehicles, then I guess that's good for people who think that electric vehicles are a solution to climate change. A little color around that, apparently at a fundraiser in the last couple of days, Donald Trump said I love EVs, I love Yvonne Elonne and surprised the crowd very much. And Elon, in response to a question yesterday, said Donald Trump often calls him and for no particular reason. But I do want to ask you about electric vehicles, broadly speaking, a space you do cover. We've seen a lot of companies pull back on those ambitious targets, including GM. What is the biggest obstacle do you think, in terms of mainstream adoption? I think, well, all the surveys show that the two things are price and the availability of the charging network. And both those things. I, I, I'm an optimistic. I'm optimistic about EV sales, which way they're going to go. The charging network is getting better very quickly. There's a lot of investment. Just, I have an electric vehicle just driving around. I see more chargers all the time, so I think that problem is getting fixed and then the price is also coming down. I saw a headline the other day that used E VS are actually cheaper than gasoline used gasoline cars and the price of new E VS is coming down very quickly. I just had a story of the Times last week about how in a couple of years I think E VS are going to be cheaper than gasoline cars. And I think most people at that point, most people are going to want one just for practical reasons. Interesting. Well, we already are seeing some cheaper E VS on discount, not just on Tesla's website, which had been cutting prices on E VS for about 18 months amid inflation, but Hertz also looking to sell off $1000 Tesla EV fleet Exactly. So you could get a $25,000 Tesla there. I'm curious, Jack, as someone who surveys the business community, you often if Elon Musk has lost any clout based on the deterioration that we've seen in Tesla stock price the past year. I think in in amid the business community, yeah, there's a lot of skepticism about them. I think. I mean, I cover the auto industry and I think the other automakers are a lot more optimistic about their own chances because they see in their view, Tesla making mistakes and creating openings for them. And you also see that in the market where Tesla's market share has fallen, they don't have that many new products. And meanwhile, companies like Hyundai, GM Board are gaining market share. And so from their point of view, Musk is making mistakes and and creating openings for them. You know, it's interesting amid all the coverage that we do of tariffs and both administrations, actually the former Trump administration and Biden now supporting tariffs against China, that commentary ramping up into the election. We saw a headline today that Chinese automakers have overtaken US rivals in sales for the first time, according to a report. What does that mean for a company like Tesla and other US automakers? Well, I think it's very important for Tesla because Tesla sells a lot of cars in China. They have a big factory in China that they used to supply the Chinese market and also to export to Europe and other places. I think we to go back to what we were saying before, I think that's one reason why Tesla Musk is talking less about cars because there's very intense competition from the Chinese car makers like BYD. We're putting out good vehicles for very reasonable prices. And they're being kept out of the US market for now because of tariffs. But they're definitely a threat to the established auto industry everywhere, including the US car makers, the longer term. Hi, Jack Ewing, business reporter of the New York Times. Jack, really good to have you on. Thank you.