Is this how Tesla will die?

Metatube

-- Looking at whether the end of Tesla has begun, and whether it is reversible  https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/this-is-how-tesla-will-die  https://davidpakman.com/book --- Become a Member: https://www.davidpakman.com/membership Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow Book David Pakman: https://www.cameo.com/davidpakman --- David on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/david.pakman David on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidpakman.bsky.social David on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@david.pakman TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow/ Pakman Discord: https://www.davidpakman.com/discord Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow --- David's tech: - Camera: Panasonic Lumix G85 https://amzn.to/4fOir5a - Microphone: Shure SM7B: https://amzn.to/3hEVtSH - Voice Processor: dbx 266xs https://amzn.to/3B1SV8N - Stream Controller: Elgato Stream Deck XL https://amzn.to/4fOGJvE - Microphone Cloudlifter: https://amzn.to/2T9bhne  -Timely news is important! We upload new clips every day! Make sure to subscribe!  Original show date March 20, 2025  #davidpakmanshow #tesla #elonmusk

Transcript

00:00Are we seeing the beginning of the death of Tesla? Is this how Tesla will die?

00:06Will Lockett thinks so. He's a climate and politics journalist who has a very good

00:11substack about corruption and other topics. And he wrote the piece. This is how Tesla will die.

00:19And I want to talk about it. Tesla was once really the golden child of the free market,

00:25a company that, according to its most devout fans, didn't just sell cars but sold the future.

00:32It was an innovation juggernaut. It would disrupt the stale auto industry with cutting edge

00:37electric vehicle and battery technology. It was promising full self-driving. I participated in

00:43it way back when, when I said this is the company moving forward EV technology the fastest. And in

00:49fact, they did. And it pushed other vehicle manufacturers to say, we've got to do something.

00:56We don't really need to worry if there's an EV out there that can go 35 miles on a full charge.

01:01But now that they can go 200, 300, 400 miles on a full charge, we need to innovate as well.

01:07And it pushed other manufacturers to do that. We are now in 2025 and in 2025, Tesla's future

01:13looks a lot less shiny. And if you listen to some analysts, it may not have a future. Now,

01:18Will Lockett writes in his piece, quote, Thanks to an aging lineup and a ketamine fueled government

01:25destroying Nazi saluting CEO, Tesla sales are plummeting across the globe. From a stock

01:32perspective, Tesla's P.E. ratio price to earnings. In other words, what is a share of the stock cost

01:39relative to what the earnings of the company are? It's astronomically out of sync with reality.

01:44You look at Toyota, a company that makes more cars, arguably has better electric vehicle

01:51technology in development and has raked in more than double Tesla's 2024 net income.

01:56Its P.E. ratio is roughly 15 percent that of Tesla's, which suggests that Tesla's valuation

02:04is just out of whack. Now, it's important to understand that as a technology company,

02:10in addition to being a car company, Tesla's valuation never was really based on what it

02:15produced. It was based on speculation. It was based on the technology that it's developing

02:19and how that technology may become ubiquitous or sort of a standard. But right now, speculation

02:25is crashing into reality because Tesla sales are cratering. They're down in the European Union.

02:31They're down in China. They're down in the U.S. They're set to drop further.

02:35The cyber truck is a flop. They've already started to scale back production. There's a

02:40massive recall, which we will talk about tomorrow because the cyber trucks are just falling apart

02:45on the highway. The 4680 battery, which was supposed to be the big innovation,

02:50is essentially obsolete. It was revolutionary, supposedly at one point. It's failed to

02:55materialize in any real way. And the full self-driving, which Elon Musk for 10 years has

03:00told us it's a month away from being completely ready for prime time. It's falling further and

03:05further behind other companies when it comes to the autonomous driving. And so what we are seeing,

03:11and I haven't even gotten to Musk and politics yet, when a stock is propped up by hype instead

03:17of fundamentals, it can work for a while, but the cracks will start to collapse the structure.

03:24And that house of cards is now collapsing because Elon Musk has become a central player

03:31in the Trump administration. You look at the finances of Tesla, huge liabilities.

03:38Elon has collateralized his Tesla stock for personal loans linked to SpaceX, Twitter, etc.

03:46If Tesla stock falls too far, lenders can issue a margin call. This would be completely

03:53unsustainable for the company. And the death spiral would look something like this,

03:58according to Will Lockett. The stock keeps going down because sales decline. Investors realize

04:05there is an unlimited growth here. The speculative bubble bursts. It wipes out the hype that has

04:12sustained the valuation of Tesla stock. So far, Tesla stock price falls below the threshold at

04:19which Musk's collateralized loans can remain out there. And he's told you got to pay these loans.

04:25Banks will issue margin calls and it means Elon has to come up with billions in cash,

04:31money he may not have. Then you need a private investor to step in, which may not happen because

04:36Elon has alienated anybody with the means to help through his political insanity. And lenders will

04:42then come in and liquidate the assets, including Tesla. Now, it's important to mention none of that

04:48means Tesla disappears. There are many ways companies of this size can kind of limp along,

04:54even if their value craters. But Tesla, as we know it, the speculative overhyped machine propped

05:00up by Elon's cult of personality, that would be dead. And I say this as one of the biggest

05:06supporters of electric vehicles. I've driven one now since twenty eighteen, nearly middle of twenty

05:11eighteen, nearly seven years. The key thing here, which I haven't mentioned yet, but now

05:16needs to be mentioned. A lot of people don't want to buy a Tesla because they don't want to

05:21support a CEO who's palling around with white nationalists, tanking companies with erratic

05:27decisions, amplifying far right conspiracy theories and participating in a destructive

05:32debasement of the federal government with mass layoffs causing insane amounts of pain.

05:38So if this is how Tesla dies, it won't be a grand conspiracy. It won't be because the media was mean

05:48it won't be because of government interference. It will be because Tesla was always a little more of

05:54an illusion technologically than a car company. Sooner or later, reality catches up to illusions.

06:02And right now, the completely absurd political machinations of Elon Musk may be accelerating that.

06:11What do you think will happen to Tesla sales and Tesla cars? Let me know.

06:17I have a book coming out. I've spent a long time working on this. I couldn't be more excited to

06:23share it with you. It is called The Echo Machine, and it answers a crucial question. How did American

06:30politics get so broken? And just as importantly, how do we fight back effectively before it's too

06:36late? Trump back in the White House, damage piling up, an administration filled with extremists and

06:43loyalists, attacks on democratic institutions, policies hurting working people. If you've felt

06:50like you're screaming into the void and watching democracy slip away, my book, The Echo Machine,

06:56will help you make sense of what's happening and also give you an idea of what we can do about it.

07:01Go to David Pakman dot com slash echo or find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible, Kindle,

07:09anywhere books, ebooks and audio books are sold. You can also call any local bookstore and say I'd

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