Insiders question Musk's leadership ability after an erratic rant on Thai rescue



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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known to be opinionated, highly motivated and even eccentric. But his recent comments on Twitter accusing a British lifeguard of being a pedophile could be the beginning of his defeat, say industry experts.

Musk began a torch war with British diver Vernon Unsworth. Musk's offer to send a submarine the size of a child to help save a football team trapped in a flooded Thai cave. In a series of increasingly severe tweets, Musk weighed in by calling Unsworth a "pedo guy". He then made matters worse when he was criticized by a Twitter fan, replying, "Bet a signed dollar, that's right."

  British Plunger Vernon Unsworth
British diver Vernon Unsworth, center, wearing a black t-shirt, with Thai Army soldiers and local rescuers during a rescue operation for l & # 39; 39, missing children football team and their coach in Tham Luang cave, 2018. Krit Phromsalka Na Sakolnakorn / AFP – Getty Images

"Your behavior feeds an unnecessary perception of your leadership – to thin skin and in a bad mood, "Gene Munster, managing partner of the venture capital firm Loup Ventures, wrote in an open letter to Tesla's CEO this week

Musk has since apologized for his words – l & # 39; one of the rare cases where he has taken back blunt and often aggressive comments directed at investors and badysts,

Musk writes that "despite Unsworth's initial criticisms," his actions against me do not warrant my actio Against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and the companies I represent as a leader. The fault is mine and me alone. "

While Musk's consistent use of Twitter has earned him unwavering loyalty – and helped to increase demand for Tesla products – critics fear he's beginning to hurt his image. The fallout from the battle was not limited to the Twittersphere, investors first fired on Tesla shares, and stocks continued to beat yo-yo this week. problems that the company has encountered to make its model 3 critical battery sedan a high-volume production.

This has clearly weighed heavily on the South African Musk, who has a lot of his fortune in the and has spent a great deal part of these last few months sleeping at Tesla's badembly plant in Fremont, California, hoping to get things started, if not out of sheer willpower.

The credit of $ 7,500 tax will start soon – which La Production will eventually reach 5,000 per week by the end of June, but Musk has yet to demonstrate that this is enough to generate the profits and positive cash flow that he has pledged. Even so, a study published by the SecondMeasure.com research site last month indicated that one-quarter of the roughly 400,000 advanced reserves that Tesla had taken for Model 3 had been canceled due to production delays. [19659004] Now, Tesla could see even more buyers thinking twice after confirming that it had reached global sales of 200,000 vehicles in the US market. It's more than a milestone. This is also the threshold from which buyers of $ 7,500 federal tax credits will receive a phased withdrawal. They will be cut in half next January and reduced by 50% in mid-2019 before disappearing completely at the end of the year.

For buyers, losing credits would result in a 21% price hike, something that could still challenge Tesla's bid to become a global manufacturer.

Indeed, Musk has started fighting on a number of fronts in recent months:

  • The CEO echoed Pres. Donald Trump repeatedly questions the accuracy and honesty of the media, even threatening to create a website to challenge journalists
  • After the death of a Tesla Model X owner in California, Musk focuses on the owner's behavior rather than on potential problems. with the autopilot system of the car that was the subject of a federal security investigation
  • Musk attacked the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency charged with this investigation [19659017] In a letter sent to Tesla employees last month former sabotage worker, ordering the company's lawyers to sue him in federal court. But it is unclear whether the punctual employee was in fact a saboteur or simply a whistleblower that Musk wants to discredit.

As investors recoiled from some of these incidents, they quickly returned, action bouncing. But Musk can not continue to take such risks.

"It jeopardizes the opportunity" to become a profitable game changer, said Munster. [ad_2]
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