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Comment by ilrwbwrkhv | Hacker News Reader

I think the 7% yoy decline of sales has the reasoning as "due to pricing, attractive financing options and mix" but I think it is a bit dishonest if Elon's political shift to the right, alienating the left who think climate change is a problem and catering to the guy who says electric cars can go to hell and "drill baby drill" isn't part of the narrative.

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This would be true if EV sales in general were up, or if competitor's EV sales were up (or, uhh.. less down than Tesla).

Tesla seems to be doing better than the rest.

That... is true though? https://insideevs.com/news/706730/us-non-tesla-bev-sales-202...

If you remove Tesla, EVs are continuing their climb. 60% increase YoY in 2023.

Oh, wow. I stand corrected!

You were likely thinking of the news that EV growth has slowed. A lot of headlines try and make it sound like EV sales are slowing but it’s the rate of growth that is.

All the news I've been able to find about EV sales slowing is from 2024, GGP's link is about 2023.

https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q1-2024-ev-sales/ says "EV share of total new-vehicle sales in Q1 was 7.3%, a decrease from Q4 2023." Though looking at the raw statistics[1], that's still a 2.6% YoY increase so hard to say if the downturn is merely seasonal or part of a larger trend. I couldn't find any data at all about Q2 2024, which is what the Tesla report we're discussing is for.

[1]: https://www.coxautoinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Q1-202...

It’s misleading when Tesla is one company with 4 old models and 1 new model, and the competition is 17 companies with dozens and dozens of mostly all brand new models.

Sure, that plays a role. You're also sticking your head in the sand if you think Musk's behavior is not an extreme own-goal that's hugely damaging to Tesla. It doesn't take a Musk hater to see that there are, in fact, a whole lot of new Musk haters in exactly Tesla's target market.

Being a celebrity is hard, and frankly Musk messed up by turning himself into one. That can only be explained by ego or lack of foresight.

GP said this needs to be "part of the narrative," and they're absolutely, unequivocally right. People hate him and don't want to be affiliated with him, justified or not.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/01/would-be-tesla-buyers-snub-c...

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