Musk’s Antics And Distractions Are Backfiring As Tesla’s Car Business Stalls
Comment Tesla reported its vehicle delivery and production numbers for Q2 2025 this week, and while the figures weren’t quite as low in absolute terms as Q1, they still mark a worrying downward trend as CEO Elon Musk continues to spread his attention across a huge variety of topics unrelated to making and selling electric cars.
Tesla reported its second quarter production and delivery numbers on Wednesday ahead of full earnings numbers later this month, saying it delivered 384,122 vehicles and produced 410,244 in its second quarter of the year. That’s a 14 percent decrease in deliveries from Q2 2024 and the second consecutive year-over-year drop. Deliveries missed the consensus average of analyst expectations as well, though not by very much, and some analysts actually expected worse.
The EV maker’s sales had been sputtering for some time as concerns mounted over things like stale inventory, which the Cybertruck didn’t help all that much, and Musk’s distracting antics at X, which he bought a couple of years ago. The underwhelming delivery of Tesla’s invite-only robotaxi pilot fleet in Austin, Texas, likely didn’t help much.
Oh, and there’s that whole DOGE thing, too.
Musk spent the first few months of Trump’s second term acting as his hatchet man in the federal government, heading up a team of innovative youngsters with nicknames like “Big Balls” at the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk and DOGE stirred up considerable controversy together until his appointment expired in May. Some Tesla owners who bought an EV in part for environmental reasons began publicly disavowing the mercurial CEO, buying up anti-Elon bumper stickers to plaster on their buggies.
But rather than leaving quietly, Musk instead got into a public feud with Trump over the President’s budget reconciliation bill, cementing his alienation among both friends and foes of Trump.
The President’s feud with his ex-BFF got so bad this week that Trump suggested DOGE should be turned against its own Dogefather to see if subsidies granted to Musk’s companies, most notably SpaceX, were a waste of federal funds.
“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump said in a social media post Tuesday. “No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE.”
Musk, in his usually measured manner, responded by goading Trump to “CUT IT ALL. Now.”
When Musk does pay attention to Tesla – which, recall, is only one of several businesses he runs alongside social media network X, rocket company SpaceX, brain implant company Neuralink, and underground tunnel digger The Boring Company – he’s reportedly ignoring the regular Tesla cars people actually want to buy in favor of his delayed robotaxis and autonomous Optimus robots, the latter, which have so far shown up primarily in canned demos.
All the marketing speak Musk can muster still doesn’t completely hide the reality of the situation.
The Optimus program is reportedly paused following the departure of its chief, Milan Kovac, in June. Optimus, which Musk previously suggested would be shipping to consumers by 2026, is reportedly in limbo as design changes are made to address the fact that the bots are not even capable of doing the factory work Tesla had hoped for.
It’s not clear whether Musk intends to step into that vacant role, but apparently he has already assumed oversight of Tesla’s sales in the US and Europe after former VP Omead Afshar departed in late June.
Whether Musk’s deft PR hand will be enough to save Tesla’s slumping sales in the US and EU is up to buyers to decide, but it might be a hard sell – according to recent Forrester research, Tesla owners love their cars, but the company “fails to connect with potential buyers,” many of whom consider the brand untrustworthy and not worth a purchase. Forrester didn’t list reasons for those perceptions, but we can think of a big one, and it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon unless shareholders decide enough is enough. ®
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