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Last Updated on: 22nd May 2025, 06:18 pm
In response to a good and interesting article from Jennifer Sensiba regarding Tesla failures caused by Elon Musk, one reader, Roger Lambert, had a critique and his own clear take on why the Cybertruck has failed. He also adds a few more Elon Musk failures that have hurt Tesla. To end, he brings up the unfortunate situation for a large group of people often forgotten and ignored in this whole discussion. Here’s Roger’s full comment:
“The boring, modular design of trucks might be bad for efficiency and bad for people who want something a little more exotic, but it unlocks economies of scale that manufacturers desperately need to compete.”
Oh, c’mon. Economy of scale comes from mass production. There is nothing inherently magical about an 80 year-old box-on-frame design. And the Cybertruck’s appeal had little to do with being “exotic” — it’s ugly from many angles.
It’s promised appeal was that it was a large EV pickup that could comfortably seat 5 people, with a large bed, with great range, with great performance and utility, with an electric drive train that would last a million miles, that it would not rust (important in the NE USA) for a more than fair price.
If Musk had delivered what he promised, the Cybertruck would have millions of sales, and nobody would be talking hooey about “unlocking economy of scale” of box-on-frame.
But — he did NOT deliver. I’m out the interest on my $100 deposit. Tesla is out billions. This alone should have resulted in his departure from the company. He has made a LOT of blunders at Tesla not mentioned in this article:
* His obsessive insistence that the X have gull-wing doors delayed that vehicle for years.
* His judgement that LIDAR would not be useful for self-driving.
* His decision to invest billions in conventional batteries in-house, dismissing solid-state batteries.
* His interpersonal obnoxiousness resulting in the brain-drain of too many talented people.
We need not go into his hijinks at Twitter or his ham-fisted antics with DOGE. The man, and now the company, is fractally toxic. That Tesla the company is toxic is a bloody shame and tragic almost beyond words for the 125,000 workers it employs.
Addendum: Another commenter, Randy Wester, had a quite humorous and pointed response to that longer comment. Here it is:
“… decision to invest billions in conventional batteries in-house, dismissing solid-state batteries”
Should have bought Toyota stock instead of Twitter.
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