Tesla has about 600K orders for the Y Juniper in China. That's total, cimulative, orders. They made some of the old model in early January but they are looking at not much over 600k, so far, for the new Y in 2025. More orders will come in but I will be surprised if they close the year above 1M Y. Model 3 sales are well off in China, far below Y sales. Those numbers are fine but not great. The factory is built to produce 2M vehicles per year. As for the future, I believe the model 2 (AKA: $25K car) will boost sales a lot. This might be a buy opportunity. I dont expect to buy Tesla again in my life, inckuding this market cap cycle, but you never know.
I have a lot of respect for what Musk did with TSLA, he pushed forward when nobody else was, but for the brand itself, there is a problem due to his politics now more than ever. Maybe its a good thing, if he can squeeze in better performance, features and beat on price, then Telsa could still come out ahead?
Per https://www.investors.com/news/tesla-board-search-replace-elon-musk-ceo/: "It's unclear if the board's succession planning has continued with Musk's plans to re-focus on Tesla." Either way, I am not surprised. You can only drag a company's image through the mud and not expect blowback from others in the company, even if it is Musk. I am not seeing the focus on Tesla from Musk like it used to be. His baby is SpaceX now, as he badly wants to return to his home planet. I am not bullish on Tesla.
This thought is probably a little out there but this came to me after noticing that if anyone mentions Elon Musk, a few people will be triggered and will absolutely freak out with an irrational response. At one time, Elon was a massive draw. He was perhaps the biggest influence on building Tesla into the height of what it became. Now Elon is an influence of repulsion. Thoughts on Elon caused me recall this 1976 interview with Frank Zappa. The thought will make sense, if you watch this 90 second video. Please consider that Alice Cooper has sold over 50m albums.
As W preaches, that's what happens when you mix politics with business. Don't piss off your base. Conservatives to not buy EVs. Elon is his own worst enemy.
The odd conservative does buy an EV, if it's cool. I dare say Cyber Truck's primary audience is not Sierra Club members. I understand it's just a trickle of Republicans compared to the real audience of Democrats. The point is, he should be fostering interest in both communities. The goal should be to build up sales to non-traditional buyers. Anyone in sales should be apolitical.
According to the Tesla chairman, Robyn Denholm, the Tesla CEO search is not real. When I read the report, my first thought is that Tesla is about to go to crap like every other automaker. For all of Elon's faults, and there are many, he has continued to make viable products that are free from epic poor quality scandals. I don't believe Elon is the only person who can be a good CEO but I also believe boards make a habit of selecting terrible CEOs who ruin the company while the board watches and does nothing. If the board acted in the best interest of the company, they would simply get JB Straubel. Whatever it takes, he is the correct guy. The next in my fantasy CEO line is probably Tom Zhu, although I must confess to being less familiar with Tom. Anyone external will ruin the company. At some point, Elon will be more of a liability as CEO than he's worth. That point could be now but I am not making that claim. For my part, I don't know or have a good feel for the situation. He genuinely repulses people and has clearly lost his mind but he is still brilliant and has also built an epic company. Elon Musk is the premier entrepreneur of our time. The problem with CEO change is, the replacement comes in with grand promise of glory that almost never comes to reality.
