Elon Musk is occurring full propaganda mode to distract from Tesla’s supply numbers with new Optimus robotic content material and deceptive claims about Mannequin Y’s recognition.
Tesla will launch its supply outcomes for the primary quarter of 2025 this morning, and it’s anticipated to be its worst quarter in two years.
Replace: Tesla has now launched its Q1 supply numbers.
CEO Elon Musk, who has principally stayed away from Tesla in current months to deal with his efforts on the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), launched a well-timed sequence of tweets about Tesla this morning, distracting from the upcoming launch of the supply outcomes:
The posts embrace new photographs of Tesla’s Optimus robotic strolling, a repost of his declare that the humanoid robotic shall be “the largest product of all time”, and a declare that Tesla’s Mannequin Y was the best-selling automobile in China.
Whereas a few of Tesla’s progress with the Optimus robotic has been spectacular, it’s primarily associated to robotics. On the AI aspect of issues, Tesla seems to nonetheless be lagging behind, as all demonstrations of the robotic to this point have concerned people remotely controlling the robots—one thing Tesla hasn’t been tremendous upfront about.
As for the declare concerning the Mannequin Y turning into the best-selling automobile in China in March, it’s meant to make folks assume that its current redesign is a hit, however that’s deceptive.
March was Tesla’s first complete month of deliveries for the brand new Mannequin Y after accumulating orders for weeks since January. A small backlog of orders helped Tesla obtain a very good month of deliveries for the Mannequin Y in China, however what Musk just isn’t highlighting is that this backlog was already exhausted by the tip of March as Tesla may ship the brand new Mannequin Y inside every week in China and began to supply 0% financing, which is principally a $2,000 low cost on the automobile.
Electrek’s Take
This can be a clear distraction. Elon has been promising the moon with Optimus, however the fact is that Tesla is getting into a really aggressive market in humanoid robots and it’s nonetheless method too early to inform who’s main at this level.
As for Mannequin Y, Elon can repost recognized misinformation spreader and paid propgandist Mario Nawfal all he desires, however the truth that Tesla’s hottest model of the Mannequin Y, the RWD customary vary, which accounts for 90% of Mannequin Y deliveries in China, already must be discounted and could be delivered inside 2 weeks proves that demand for the Mannequin Y redesign is comfortable in China.
Tesla is being squeezed by competitors within the nation, and it’s turning into an actual drawback because the automaker is probably going not making any revenue in China proper now whereas promoting a whole bunch of hundreds of automobiles.
In the meantime, Tesla’s deliveries are anticipated to point out that Tesla is beginning the yr down once more after 2024 was its first full yr with out progress because it began ramping up the Mannequin S.
