#automaker

The Musk-Trump lovefest is based on Musk hoping a Trump administration would reduce competition in the EV market.

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On its face, a second Trump presidency would be bad for companies [like Tesla] trying to move the country away from fossil fuels.

Musk opened the company's investor call by saying the wave of competition killing its profits and shrinking its market share would pass, but he didn't offer any reasoning.

When asked if he was worried about Trump repealing the IRA, Musk tipped his hand. He told investors that the move would be "devastating" for Tesla's competitors but less so for Tesla — in fact, "long term," he said, it would be good for Tesla.

In essence this was an admission that Musk's best hope is that Trump returns to the White House and dismantles the regulatory regime that has encouraged legacy automakers to enter the EV market. The best thing for Tesla is if US legacy automakers like GM and Ford sit on the sidelines.

Rather than worrying about society's move to an all-electric future, Musk is mainly concerned about maintaining Tesla's dominant position in the EV market. 

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While he's hoping to use Trump to kill of competition in the EV market, Musk is talking up a world of fantastic innovations that Tesla STILL hasn't built yet.

First, he said that Telsa is not a car company; it is an AI company.

Then he promised autonomous robotaxis by August, never mind that Musk has been promising the robotaxi for about a decade.

Then he said the company was making headway with a new humanoid robot called Optimus — never mind that when Tesla unveiled Optimus it was a person dancing in a robot costume, and Tesla still won't say which tasks it can do.

Then he glazed over the product the world really wants: a cheaper Tesla priced at about $25,000 to $30,000. Without providing more detail, he mentioned that those models would start rolling out of factories in the first half of 2025, never mind that Musk has been saying something like that since 2018.

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Fisker provides first look at $29,900 urban EV, confirms Ohio production

Good News Notes: “Fisker confirmed Thursday that production of its compact electric vehicle, the $29,900 Pear EV, will enter production in 2024 at the former GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio.  It’s not a niche affair, either. Fisker is going for volume with this one, with the aim to build a minimum of 250,000 units a year after the ramp-up, including some of the capacity at the mammoth plant good for…

Tesla, Ford, and Volvo occupy the top three spots in a new ranking of 18 global automakers based on their efforts to eliminate carbon emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains. Toyota, meanwhile, lurks near the bottom of the list, underscoring the persistent difficulty in getting the world’s largest car company to clean up its supply chain. The rankings…

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