CGTN Europe spoke to Professor Jim Saker, President of the Institute of the Motor Industry at Loughbourough University.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Jim, so there we are, Tesla in a bit of a car crash, but it seems as if things are picking up, widely predicted by the analysts, of course.
00:07What's your take on Tesla's performance?
00:11Well, I think there are two aspects to it.
00:13I think the first one is the stock market tends to react quicker than customers do.
00:19You know, customers and the brand, it's very difficult.
00:21Elon Musk stepping back into Tesla becomes a big issue for a number of people,
00:26but it's very difficult to split the man from the brand.
00:29And he has done an incredible amount of damage to the Tesla brand by just his actions and the Nazi salute
00:37and all the rest of the stuff that's been going on on stage in the U.S.
00:42Tesla isn't unfamiliar with crises, of course.
00:46I mean, it was on the brink of bankruptcy, if I remember rightly, back in 2008.
00:50Musk call that year the worst of his life.
00:54I mean, companies can bounce back. Can Tesla bounce back from this?
01:00I think Tesla can. It's the question mark over Elon Musk, because he's actually gone on exit of the old Twitter,
01:08you know, as supporting far-right extremists in the U.K., like Tommy Robinson and Andrew McIntyre,
01:15who was one of the provocateurs of the Southport riots.
01:19He's gone supporting that.
01:20And the reaction in Europe has been phenomenal.
01:23We know that France, you know, sales dropped by 63 percent, Sweden by 44 percent, Norway by 38 percent.
01:30These are massive drops in sales.
01:32And that's a direct result of people saying, I'm not going to buy a Tesla.
01:35So, therefore, you have that and the ongoing issues about them being called swastikars and all this type of stuff.
01:41But it's a very damaging, damaged brand at the moment.
01:45And just driving around Britain, I found people driving Teslas with the badges taken off so that people don't want to identify with it.
01:52And do you think there really is that strong correlation?
01:55I mean, it can't simply be about Musk, surely.
01:58I mean, there are other problems at Tesla, are there not?
02:01Well, there are.
02:03But if in a fragile situation in the electric car market at the moment, you've got very strong product coming in from BYD, MG, a whole range of other Chinese brands.
02:15And so, therefore, when you're looking at it from a customer's point of view, that becomes a problem.
02:19In the U.K., the sales have dropped off less, primarily because Tesla is a company car.
02:24But a number of boardrooms at the moment are looking and going, you know, boards that have got corporate social responsibility type policies that they're trying to engender.
02:34You know, do we want to be associated with this man and this brand?
02:37And therefore, they may be taking the Tesla off the company car list.
02:40So, it's a damaged brand at the moment.
02:43And the jury is definitely out as to whether Musk can actually tone down his own personality and his own views to promote the brand itself.
02:51As you allude to, I'm not sure that Mr. Musk is a man who takes advice from anyone.
02:57But if he did, what does he need to do when he gets back behind the boardroom desk?
03:05He needs to stabilise and take the politics out of the brand.
03:10You have to have a brand which is being built on the basis that it's a great car.
03:15It's got great capability, great, great internal fits and all that sort of stuff.
03:20You need to have the product right, get the price right and take the politics out of the situation completely.
03:27The product is tired, though, and ageing, isn't it, compared to competitors?
03:31I mean, that's an issue, is it not?
03:34In most situations, the car is always the star.
03:37And therefore, unless they continue to improve the Tesla, the Tesla range up against the major competition from China, then it's going to struggle.
03:47And also, he has a problem with China, that the bulk of batteries and battery components and the whole raw material side of battery production is controlled by China.
04:00They control around about 95 percent of it.
04:02So therefore, you know, to end up with a tariff war and also a far-right extremist view becomes very difficult.
04:11You have to get the product right and you have to take the politics out of the brand.
04:15You have to take the politics out of the brand.