I saw a great video on YouTube a while ago. I can’t remember who made it. It analyzed Tesla’s history and forecasted they were in big trouble. The thesis was basically they wasted every lead they had.
They could have gotten the X out the door faster and cheaper without the gull-wing doors, something probably no one cared enough about to base their buying decisions on.
The 3 could have been out faster if Musk didn’t keep trying to fully automate production from day one, something no one had accomplished, and flush a ton of money in the process.
They could have been further on the semi if they had focused on it. They could have had a truck on the market for years by now (when Ford and Chevy now do) if they weren’t trying to do something so out there. Trucks are the number one category of vehicles in the US and they chose to blow ignore that market.
They’ve had tons of time to get better at quality. They may have the best charging network but but the standard everyone else uses is being built fast, so that advantage is shrinking. The visual designs of the cars have never really changed when other automakers change them every few years. Service complaints are still a big problem.
And all that time and money (and bad PR) on “full self driving” that is still is nowhere close to the original promise. But that seems to be almost the number one focus.
It basically gave a very strong case for poor management. Tesla has done a ton, no question. EVs wouldn’t be as big today as they are without the huge push from Tesla. But Tesla could have been so much further ahead if they had chosen to be.
I think the Twitter drama is just highlighting his management style and making people take a more realistic look at things, removing a lot of benefit of the doubt he was given before.