Recently the Tesla CEO has tried to argue the market with the most buyers in the world is completely hostile to his brand.
You’d think he was talking about China.
He has been repeatedly throwing bigger and bigger discounts there to try and find someone interested in buying his old and sagging cars.
Tesla cut prices in China for the second time in three months, as demand for its cars falters. Elon Musk’s EV maker discounted its cars by up to 13.5%…
Huge price cuts and huge payouts aren’t enough, apparently; Chinese don’t like the Texas discount car brand and for good reasons.
But actually the CEO was talking about California.
…attorneys representing Tesla and Musk argue that the CEO has garnered extensive and negative publicity in California…
His augment is basically that when he does dumb things that make him unpopular (e.g. fraud, repeatedly caught lying and cheating) he should be judged only by people who he thinks like him (who he gives money).
This looks and sounds like a criminal’s getaway plan.
Beg for billions from the government of California, then beg Texas and China to take in the ill-gotten money in exchange for protection from California.
Tesla has received more than $3.2 billion worth of direct and indirect California subsidies and market mechanisms since 2009…
It reminds me of when Uber got into trouble with San Francisco authorities (due to fraud including misleading statements about safety, similar to Tesla).
They then very publicly announced their exit to “more friendly” Arizona, where they subsequently (very predictably) killed a pedestrian and were completely shut down. It never recovered, even in San Francisco.
The Tesla CEO would be lucky to be tried for his alleged crimes in California, given its modern justice system and long-term government investments (e.g. the governor is known to say “without California there was no Tesla”).
Texas and China, like Arizona almost instantly flipping on Uber, have nothing to lose from sending this recently arrived outsider with his pockets full of California’s money straight to the gallows.
China’s Bernie Madoff Was Executed for Fraud—and Nobody Told His Family
Update: The desperate and ill-concieved fire sale has dangerously angered the Tesla buyers who arbitrarily were charged more than others. Tesla owners thus are gathering to protest the Texas discount car brand as self-centered and unfair.