Tesla's commitment to sustainable energy and electric vehicles is something I will always support.

[DronePilot]

The leader may have lost his way, but the overarching goals are the same.

[Shermann]

1. It's odd to me that Trump has found more common ground with the man than Democrats have. nt

[eShirl]

4. not so odd when you consider how much $$$ he threw at getting Trump reelected

[Callie1979]

7. Wonder if there's ANY way his companies could end up benefiting?? Hmmm

[ForgedCrank]

22. Although no one

really knows but Musk, it seemed to me that he was more left than right for a very long time. When I saw him snap was in reaction to his factory in Fremont being forcibly closed by covid mandates. That was the first major indicator I saw.
Since then, he has drifted further and further to the right. He's also had some major outbursts regarding taxation.

[bluesbassman]

28. Talk to people who worked there in Fremont.

By and large they were treated poorly from a “left” viewpoint. I believe his eco friendly push with Tesla wasn’t so much ideological as it was simply a business model. Remember, when Teslas were first hitting the market “diamond” or multiple occupant commuter lanes were becoming a huge thing in gridlocked California freeways. Musk got the state to give his cars an exemption sticker and I knew several people personally that bought early Teslas for that very reason alone.

I don’t think Musk was ever as liberal as people claim he “used” to be. I think he just used that as part of his shtick.

[Wiz Imp]

33. I don't think Tesla's commitment was ever to sustainable energy and electric vehicles

Their commitment has always been to making money. They took advantage of a market deficiency. the reason, however, wasn't altruistic, it was monetary.

[ForgedCrank]

34. Elon Musk

is a relatively wise businessman overall, but he's one of those willing to take extreme risks.
But, his true skill is modelling business around the ways he can extract government subsidies or funding. Even Tesla started out and utilized all of the taxpayer credits that buffered the cost of this product, not to mention all of the local and state tax breaks used to build the facilities and hire people. Even the consumer was getting like 8K in tax credits for buying one of them in the beginning. Even Space-X is dependent on government money and contracts, or at least it was getting started.
I don't know if I can think of any example of his business that did not in some way make use of government money.
Of course now he is claiming to be on the side of taxpayers by trying to cut all of this out now that he's got his start.
We'll see what the future brings.

edit:
I was just thinking about this and I failed to consider the Twitter purchase. This might be the one instance where he entered into a business that was not in some way government funded or subsidized. Then again, I know little of the purchase details. I don't think government has any contracts with X/Twitter

[DronePilot]

29. You're exactly right.

Appreciate the civility.

[regnaD kciN]

51. I thought it might have something to do with his kid coming out as trans...

He seems totally transphobic, and contends that "wokeness killed his son."

[ForgedCrank]

59. I've never

hear him hint of that, but anything is possible I suppose.

[Wiz Imp]

62. It can be found easily with a 2-second search

https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/my-son-is-dead-killed-by-the-woke-virus-elon-musk-opens-up-about-sons-gender-transition-438298-2024-07-23

'My son is dead, killed by the woke virus': Elon Musk opens up about son's gender transition

[ForgedCrank]

63. I'd have

to actually be interested in order to waste the 2 seconds on that.

[Cha]

68. Yeah not a huge puzzle

Or at all.

[Cha]

69. Dupe Sorry

[live love laugh]

13. And yet Democrats have allowed him to access government contracts for the past four years.

[Callie1979]

2. Its a pipe dream for now. There's really not much benefit in an EV over an ICE.

Until there is a revolution in the way energy is STORED, EVs will simply be a way to transfer energy generation issues to a different location.

[DronePilot]

3. I'll keep that in mind while rolling coal in my EV.

[Callie1979]

5. "rolling coal" is generally illegal. And diesel pickups are a small minority of sales.

The number of assholes who modify them to "roll coal" are an even smaller one.

[LexVegas]

6. Wrong. nt

[Callie1979]

8. How? Cant just make a blanket denial with no explanation

[live love laugh]

9. What is ICE?

[hatrack]

11. Internal Combusion Engine

.

[DronePilot]

12. Internal Combustion Engine

Since we need trendy acronyms for everything.

[Think. Again.]

15. Nope.

We need all of it, non-CO2 emitting energy production, storage, AND usage.

Progress on any portion of the clean energy transition is progress toward ending CO2 emissions.

Of course it will not all happen at once, but it all does have to happen as quickly as possible.

[RandomNumbers]

21. So why is a hybrid car (with a battery) similar pricing as a traditional ICE?

I have an older Prius hybrid (not pluggable but obviously has a battery to run in EV mode) and don't recall being stunned by the price tag, or feeling that I was paying much of a premium for hybrid.

[Callie1979]

25. I'm fine w/hybrids. Hybrid is the only real way to get mass acceptance. Toyota knows it.

Although I wonder if there would be a way to kind of reverse the system; make the electric the main source & the gas engine to keep it charged. Then alternate between the two
I'd buy a hybrid not an EV

Total EVs as our tech is today is just not an answer. Its a small piece. But when you factor how we get the battery materials & the charging networks & range issues, along with price, they're really not doing as much as people think.

[bif]

27. They should have converted to hybrids 10 years ago

Just my opinion. We have to and love both of them. Our Ford Escape gets close to 40 MPG.

[Lulu KC]

39. That is a critical point

Without cleaner energy, EVs are just ways to maintain the status quo with fossil fuels. It's nice to not have to stop at the gas station, but we're only fooling ourselves without the other side of the equation.

[hatrack]

10. Oh, like this commitment to sustainabilty and electric cars?

April 5 (Reuters) - Tesla has canceled the long-promised inexpensive car that investors have been counting on to drive its growth into a mass-market automaker, according to three sources familiar with the matter and company messages seen by Reuters. The automaker will continue developing self-driving robotaxis on the same small-vehicle platform, the sources said.

The decision represents an abandonment of a longstanding goal that Tesla(TSLA.O)
chief Elon Musk has often characterized as its primary mission: affordable electric cars for the masses. His first “master plan” for the company in 2006 called for manufacturing luxury models first, then using the profits to finance a “low cost family car.”

Musk has since repeatedly promised such a vehicle to investors and consumers. As recently as January, Musk told investors that Tesla planned to start production of the affordable model at its Texas factory in the second half of 2025, following an exclusive Reuters report detailing those plans.

Tesla’s cheapest current model, the Model 3 sedan, retails for about $39,000 in the United States. The now-defunct entry-level vehicle, sometimes described as the Model 2, was expected to start at about $25,000. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. After the story was published, Musk posted on his social media site X that "Reuters is lying (again)." He did not identify any specific inaccuracies.

EDIT

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-scraps-low-cost-car-plans-amid-fierce-chinese-ev-competition-2024-04-05/

[DronePilot]

14. Or this one?????

https://www.truckinginfo.com/10228520/tesla-and-pepsico-give-semi-update-at-iaa-2024

Blind anger is blinding.

[hatrack]

23. Obvious trolling is obvious . . . but you do you, FanBro

PepsiCo Ordered 100 Tesla Semis In 2017. Tesla Delivered 36 So Far
Tesla built roughly 140 Semis to date, according to historical data and a new report from Reuters.

Apr 22, at 10:00am ET
Share
Comment

Production of the all-electric Tesla Semi Class 8 rig is slower than anticipated, with the total fleet amounting to roughly 140 units since production began toward the end of 2022, historical data and new information revealed by Reuters suggests. Tesla never released official production figures for its biggest vehicle.

In late 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the annual production of the Semi would reach 50,000 units in 2024. Fast-forward to June 2023, and the outspoken head honcho toned down his expectations and said that the company doesn’t expect to start higher-volume production of the electric Semi before late 2024, citing battery supply constraints. So let’s see how the manufacturing ramp-up went so far.

One of the biggest customers for the Tesla Semi is PepsiCo. The company made initial payments for 100 units in 2017, but as of early April, the snack and beverage maker had received 36 Semis, according to a spokesperson quoted by Reuters. That’s the same number of Semis as in March 2023. In October of last year, the total number of Semis built had risen to around 60-70.

EDIT

https://insideevs.com/news/716902/tesla-semi-deliveries-pepsico-april-2024/

Oh, and total Class 8 tractor count in the United States is +/- 2.9 million, so whatever.

https://www.stonge.com/trucking-by-the-numbers/

Buh-bye.

[Callie1979]

26. Another pipe dream.

[DronePilot]

44. Oops. Model Q

According to the Chinese outlet CNMO Technology News (Sina Finance), Travis Axelrod, Tesla’s Head of Investor Relations, announced plans to launch a new model. Axelrod shared this update while addressing senior corporate investors at an investor conference hosted by Deutsche Bank on December 5, 2024.

The goal of Project Redwood, internally dubbed “Model Q” by Deutsche Bank, is to achieve a post-subsidy price of under $30,000 USD. With the Federal EV Rebate potentially expiring next year, this suggests that the Model Q’s starting price will be around $30,000 USD. For comparison, the Model 3 currently starts at $42,490 in the U.S.

[waterwatcher123]

16. It is pretty hard to support Tesla when Elon Musk's wealth is tied to its stock value.

Last edited Sat Dec 14, 2024, 04:40 PM - Edit history (1)

There are plenty of reasonable alternatives to Tesla when it comes to electric vehicles.

[maxrandb]

17. Stop buying Teslas!!!!!!!

JFC! Why is this so fucking hard to understand?!!!!

It's like "praising Volkswagens commitment to affordable transportation" in 1931! It's like saying; "Hitler did some good things"!

Can we at least draw the line at funding nazis? Please???!!!!!

Musk is nothing but a South African nazi. He learned, first-hand, how the policy of apartheid could make your family obscenely wealthy.

American apartheid may no longer be exclusively about race, but it is about ANYONE that dares to challenge fascists, or refuses to "bend the knee" to their fascist aims.

I won't shop at a store that displays a swastika, and I won't find ANYTHING beneficial about a car built by a nazi.

The only message these fucksticks understand and care about is a financial message.

Nothing will change! The racism, fascism, misogyny, hatred and white supremacy...NONE OF IT...will change, unless and until we make racism, fascism, misogyny, hatred and white supremacy UNPROFITABLE to the businesses, corporations and individuals that fund and enable it.

My God! It's like I've come across a turd laying in the road, and people are trying to convince me it's OK to pick it up with my bare hands, as long as I grab it by the "clean end".

The media does a good job at turd polishing. DU shouldn't help them.

[Polybius]

65. I love mine

I saved a ton of money with the government savings.

[hunter]

18. Elon Musk can go to hell.

Nothing he has done, absolutely nothing, has made this world a better place.

He should have been deported when he dropped out of Stanford.

Instead we let him bamboozle a bunch of credulous tech bros and trash our nation.

[Polybius]

66. He convinced a lot of right-wingers to buy Teslas

That made the world a better place.

[hunter]

71. How?

The environmental footprint of automobiles is huge no matter how they are powered. This planet cannot support an automobile for every human adult. It's not just the cars themselves, it's all the infrastructure required to support cars.

Generally the people with the smallest environmental footprints live in cities, don't own cars, and don't eat a lot of meat or dairy products.

If we really cared about earth's natural environment we'd be rebuilding our cities, turning them into attractive affordable places where car ownership is unnecessary.

My grandmother was born in San Francisco just after the Great Earthquake. I'd love to live in my great grandparent's house, which my great grandmother sold long ago after my great grandfather passed away. I wouldn't really need a car there. Unfortunately, with an estimated value of $3,000,000 plus, the home is out of my price range.

Question: If living in cities with good public transportation and markets you can walk to is so undesirable, then why are homes there so expensive?

For the record I have relatives who live in San Francisco. My own children live in big cities. I know what living in such places is like, and I myself could happily live in such places.

[alarimer]

19. They are probably lying, though.

They are bad for the people who work for them, if that matters at all (which is should).

Despite that,, I fucking hate Tesla and hope it fails.

Buying a Tesla just puts money in that piece of shit's pocket.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. What price do we have to pay when he is going to use his position to hide fatality statistics?

Or WHEN HE'S TRYING TO END COMPETITION BY DOING AWAY WITH THE $7500 rebate for electric car rebates?

If he is going to be that corrupt, what makes you think he won't make the same kind of decisions in construction and design?

[travelingthrulife]

24. Hiding fatality statistics. One would think Americans would wake up with that phrase,

but they keep slumbering along. Christmas is coming you know.

[CrispyQ]

30. And the price of eggs is going down!!

Do you think Fox covered the part where Trump said he might not be able to bring groceries down?

[beaglelover]

31. I'm on my second Tesla lease and it will be my last. I will not support the company any longer if Musk is in charge.

It's a shame because the cars are pretty great, but as others have stated, these days there are great alternatives to Tesla. Sure, the charging networks available to the others is not as great as Tesla's network, but the Tesla network is slowly being opened to other brands. I also don't do long trips in my Tesla so being able to charge at home is all that I need. I could NEVER go back to an ICE car after driving an EV since 2020.

[DronePilot]

32. Solar. Powerwall. Megapack. Semi. Charging network. Sustainable.

[Keepthesoulalive]

37. Why do you have such a need

To make Elon musk some sort of hero? A depression helps no one and if his ridiculous plans move forward that’s where we’ll be. He has a god complex where the little people suffer for his greater good.
I will be glad when we don’t have to hear his sorry ass name again.

[mercuryblues]

47. Applauding a self described drug using Nazi?

EYS.

[sellitman]

35. I would buy a horse before I'd buy a NAZISMOBILE

I drive a Prius and plan to buy my first electric car when they become more affordable and have a range of at least 300 miles.

It won't be a Tesla either.

[La Coliniere]

54. Same here. My wife and I both drive 2015 Ford C-Max hybrids.

One has slightly over 100,000 miles and the other has about 80,000 on the odometer. They are incredibly solid and comfortable vehicles. Both of the cars’ batteries are operating at about 98% power after 9 years of usage. No major repairs other than the usual brakes and tires that comes with aging. Both cars are still averaging about 40 mph in the summer and 35-36 mph in the winter. Ford made a mistake by not aggressively marketing these hybrids, and a bigger mistake in discontinuing them a few years ago. Thinking our next vehicles will be all electric but hoping our C-Maxes get a few more years of usage.

[JohnSJ]

36. No they are not. How about supporting Tesla's competitors instead of a pompous, sexist, autocrat trying to

destroy democracy.

Tesla’s not the only game in town, and catering to his dangerous views is a dangerous game.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

38. You could support a DIFFERENT BRAND of electric vehicle.

[BannonsLiver]

41. Yeah it's not like Tesla is the only maker of EVs

Weird hill to die on for sure.

[BannonsLiver]

40. That's bro-iffic!!!!

Brooooooooooo…..

[MarineCombatEngineer]

43. Hey, how about coming back to this BS thread you started

and answering those of us who have a concern about creating a "turncoat" AKA, enemies list?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219812257
But, what the hey, I do hope you enjoy your stay, however long that might last.

[JohnSJ]

45. Thank-you MCE. This guy isn't playing with a full deck.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

46. Yep.

A few sandwiches short of a picnic.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

52. Thank you for posting this

That thread is sad

[GoneOffShore]

48. There are better electric vehicles out there, but Eloon has a monopoly in the US.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

49. Tesla is now the leader of the "most unsafe cars" list by iSeeCars

Some of my oldest child's law partners have Telsas. My oldest has been in a couple of these cars and was NOT impress. These cares are also dangerous

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

It will be interesting to see how Teslas hold up with these ratings

[Johonny]

50. Soylent Greens commitment to a sustainable future

Is something I will always support.

[Initech]

53. I would buy a Model Y if someone other than Eloon were in charge.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

55. Tesla named 'The Deadliest Car Brand in America', NHTSA data shows

Tesla named 'The Deadliest Car Brand in America', NHTSA data shows.

That makes Musk the deadliest CEO of any business, or government department head.

Link to tweet

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2024/11/24/tesla-named-deadliest-car-brand-in-america/76335529007/

iSeeCars has an interesting analysis of vehicle fatality rates (using the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System and then adjusted by miles traveled using iSeeCar’s own data) that reaches some fascinating (and, admittedly, grisly) conclusions. On one hand, the list confirms some basic vehicle safety concepts, like that the physics of a multi-vehicle crash favor the larger vehicles, and so forth. Small vehicles (physics), sports cars (risk-taking behavior) and some mainstream vehicles (perhaps just the sheer amount of them on the road?) tend to have the highest fatality rates. On the other hand, the brand with the highest number of fatal crashes per mile might surprise you.

It’s an American automaker, a relative newcomer, exclusively builds EVs and has arguably the most controversial (and richest) CEO in vehicular history. Yes, it’s Tesla. iSeeCars pegs the Tesla fatality rate at 5.6 accidents per billion vehicle miles traveled. This does not factor in any information about non-fatal crashes; it only includes FARS data in which at least one occupant died in the crash.

[ZonkerHarris]

56. You just joined only to carry Musk's water for him? Full ignore.

[Blue_Tires]

57. I was waiting to hear a "But..." 😔

[tenderfoot]

58. Shouldn't you be flying drones over the state of New Jersey?

[yaesu]

60. Like supporting Hitlers Volkswagen, I suppose. nt

[Irish_Dem]

61. Tesla and Trump's boifriend can kiss my ass.

Excuse my language. But I cleaned it up quite a bit.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

64. Bye by

[Polybius]

67. Very brave post

I'm with you 100%.

[Jack Valentino]

70. FUCK TESLA because of their leader.

I say they have an over-priced TRASH product, because they have an overrated TRASH company leader.


There are much better options available, if I ever have the means to acquire an electric vehicle or hybrid---

(one without a great big invisible swastika on the roof)



I have been regularly TRASHING the Tesla brand whenever the opportunity arises.

Since I have become an 'answer polls for cash' hobbyist recently,
I have had numerous such opportunities.

[standingtall]

72. I'm never buying a Telsa

I hope Toyota has success with their hydrogen ice engines and then EV's will be on their way out.

[Nimble_Idea]

73. going where teslas go - trash

[Hekate]

74. Muskrat is nobody's friend