No, Musks attention will not save Tesla

Great news! Elon Musk is going to be the CEO of his own car company again! After being Trump's best friend and biggest enemy of the world, he finally came to his senses. Or he felt the pain of his fortune declining at an alarming rate and figured it would be better to maybe do something that doesn't anger the world as much.

Either way, at the last investor meeting where Tesla presented the dark red numbers of the last quarter, Musk promised his work as advisor to Trump was almost done and that he would dedicate vastly more time to Tesla.

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It's probably one of the only promises he's likely to keep. Mostly because US laws don't allow him to be part of the government longer than 130 days per every 365 days. He has a 'special government employee' status which ends after that term. Granted, Trump could just ignore the law, claim some bullshit and have Musk working for longer at DOGE, but it seems a step to far even for Trump.

That means Musk, with a lot of time on his hands, will have to focus more on Tesla. But that might not be as good a thing as the investors think it will be. Still, they hope it will be, because after Musk's promise, the stock rose almost 6 precent.

But Elon back at the helm of Tesla wont be the solution to the problems Tesla is in. Musk has been steering the company in the completely wrong direction for years now. He's trying to make it a AI and robotics company, which might be a good idea for the future, but trying to do it now is way to soon.

Robotics on the other hand has been profitable for decades, just not in the way Musk envisions it. Robots nowadays are machines that are dedicated to a few tasks, which they perform perfectly. Musk wants to change all that and create the first humanoid robot that, with the help of non-existent AI, will be not only your house slave, but also be your best friend to whom you can talk about your day and your problems.

And the Robotaxi that is being promised to take rides with customers through Austin, Texas later this year, isn't nearly finished. Tesla is not a the level of Waymo, which currently is the only autonomous taxi allowed on public roads. And even Waymo isn't able to drive customers around flawlessly. To make the gap between Tesla and Waymo even more obvious, Waymo cars have way more sophisticated sensors than the Tesla Robotaxi does. To name one very important one: LiDAR.

What Tesla needs right now is a more affordable car. And by that I mean a 25.000 euro or less car that can deliver the standard Tesla set with the Model 3 at the time that car was introduced to the market. Not only has the demand in the electric car market shifted to the cheaper regions, Tesla can do what it does best, break that part of the market wide open and establish dominance.

Just look at what the company did with the Model 3 and Y. It introduced cars that where so much better than the competition at the price point, that every sane person simply couldn't justify buying a car from a different brand that delivered less range, less space and less convenience for more money.

The issue is that top brass at Tesla sees the need for the Model 2, and thinks it has the ability to dominate the EV-market, but Musk doesn't. According to a report from The Information, the richest man on the planet doesn't want to introduce a new cheaper car. He thinks it's a dull move that doesn't fit his believe to tackle the next big thing. So he's killed the production of the Model 2 single handedly and told the company to focus on the Robotaxi.

To make things worse, Musk dismissed the calculations that the Robotaxi would not be profitable for years to come. According to him maths don't take the obvious upside of autonomous ride hailing into account.

He also didn't think producing the Model 2 alongside the Robotaxi (both models are built on the same platform) would be a good idea to cover the losses of the Robotaxi. He just wants to do big and bold things, not get down into the weeds and do what the company needs and the world wants.

Spending more time at Tesla and applying focus isn't wrong, in fact, Musk has proven that is a recipe for success. But this time it might not be. It's not a good thing when Musk will reapply his way of working to the company while steering it in the wrong direction. I'm guessing this is not what investors expect to see when Musk returns at the wheel of the company. They expect an intervention and a pivot to combat the decline he is to blame for. I get the feeling that this connection is not being made.

But let's stay hopeful here. Tesla has great executives that now how to work with Musk. They know his quirks and know how to communicate with him. Let's hope they have the ability to talk some sense into the guy. Which will be harder than ever since he's been adored by the President of the United States himself for everything he says and does.

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