As someone who voted my 180 shares against the package, I'm wondering what the appeal was.
As I see it, at this point, Elon has become toxic to the Tesla brand. Nobody has a "I bought it before I knew the CEO was a dick" bumper sticker on the back of a Chevrolet. Going forward, how many people who thought of Teslas as cool and aspirational in 2019, and are now ready to make the EV leap, are shopping Ford and Hyundai instead because of his embarrassing presence. This was a great way to try to flush him off of the brand.
I also suspect the EV market is enterring a new phase, and I believe it requires different management priorities and personalities. It's one thing to lead a startup into a largely greenfield market, but now the competition is established firms realizing "That 2030/2035/2040 ICE ban deadline isn't that far away, and we don't want to be holding the bag". We're no longer in the phase of visionaries flinging stuff at the wall to see what sticks, it's an increasingly established market where we should be acting based on understanding customer needs and tastes.
At a tech level, Tesla has a few years' edge on the broader market, particularly with regards to established supply chains and charging networks, but I worry they're not using that lead time to build a moat in areas regular consumers care about. The Cybertruck is a blatant example-- it's hardly going to poach F-150 Lightning buyers-- but their broad fit-and-finish issues and the tendency to be treating cars like a software product with regular patches are things that are tolerable for the early-adopter crowd, but no longer resonate when they're one brand among many.
Don't tell me about self-driving or robotaxis. Tell me how you're going to make sure the 2034 Model 3 is going to out-compete the inevitable Civic and Corolla EVs.
Why? Well, he made the deal years ago with outrageous performance targets,
either meet them or don't get paid. He met the targets. Pay him.
Oh, and he has to pay to get those shares. They aren't free. When was the last
time you paid to get paid? And he still has to wait 5 years to cash out.
As for laying off the supercharger team... that saves nearly $1B per year in
people costs. But Elon just said it will invest $500 million in a network
expansion and create thousands of new chargers this year. More chargers,
fewer people, more company money saved.
As for "the EV market is entering a new phase", lets look at some numbers.
The car majors are LOSING over $100,000 PER ELECTRIC CAR OR TRUCK.
Tesla is MAKING about $7000 per car. How do you think the race is going?
Ford is trying to build a CATL battery plant in Michigan but people won't let him.
Tesla is building several battery plants and investing in their own technology.
All of the majors buy "carbon credits" from Tesla amounting to Billions every year.
Tesla Semi pulls the same load and the same distance as deisel but saves an
estimated $80,000 over the lifetime of the truck in fuel costs (forget savings
in maintenance). So buy 2 trucks, get the third one free.
Tesla Model Y is the best selling car (EV or ICE) worldwide. Norway posted 95% of
vehicles sold last month, including non-Teslas, were EVs.
As for the investment required to make EVs, VW and Toyota are the world's largest
debt companies. They have to write off dozens-of-Billions of factory cost as a loss
during EV conversion. Tesla has $20 Billion in cash, not debt.
I'm sure the horse industry thought Henry Ford was stupid, evil, and a threat
to their business.
Why does this headline make it sound that it's a contradiction? Isn't it because Elon Musk is willing to take drastic actions like in the headline to improve stock price in the short term that shareholders voted for his pay?
A vote for Elon's bonus doesn't cost the shareholders anything until the Delaware courts hear the appeal. A vote against could tank the stock based on Elon's threats. It might seem absurd too have such a short term view, but fund managers probably think they can get out before a price drop.
Imagine giving somebody their agreed to earnings, because you took a gamble that he would achieve massive success for you and him.
That hard decision, associated with long term strategies that few could achieve (let alone understand), is an example of why Elon deserved what he was promised.
My god that’s such a moronic and sick quote. There are plenty of other companies where you can execute on that philosophy that aren’t consumed by assholism.
As I see it, at this point, Elon has become toxic to the Tesla brand. Nobody has a "I bought it before I knew the CEO was a dick" bumper sticker on the back of a Chevrolet. Going forward, how many people who thought of Teslas as cool and aspirational in 2019, and are now ready to make the EV leap, are shopping Ford and Hyundai instead because of his embarrassing presence. This was a great way to try to flush him off of the brand.
I also suspect the EV market is enterring a new phase, and I believe it requires different management priorities and personalities. It's one thing to lead a startup into a largely greenfield market, but now the competition is established firms realizing "That 2030/2035/2040 ICE ban deadline isn't that far away, and we don't want to be holding the bag". We're no longer in the phase of visionaries flinging stuff at the wall to see what sticks, it's an increasingly established market where we should be acting based on understanding customer needs and tastes.
At a tech level, Tesla has a few years' edge on the broader market, particularly with regards to established supply chains and charging networks, but I worry they're not using that lead time to build a moat in areas regular consumers care about. The Cybertruck is a blatant example-- it's hardly going to poach F-150 Lightning buyers-- but their broad fit-and-finish issues and the tendency to be treating cars like a software product with regular patches are things that are tolerable for the early-adopter crowd, but no longer resonate when they're one brand among many.
Don't tell me about self-driving or robotaxis. Tell me how you're going to make sure the 2034 Model 3 is going to out-compete the inevitable Civic and Corolla EVs.