Elon Musk: Man or Meme?

Written by Aditya Gupta

Prior to his transformation into an über internet meme, Elon Musk was a man of maverick thought, action, and foresight. While his cult following has waned in recent years, his intentions seem to have remained relatively unadulterated, and hence quite appalling to his Capitalist stockholders. To the discontent of Elon’s naysayers, his motivations for founding Tesla were overwhelmingly altruistic. He wished to create an affordable electric car that would nearly nullify Carbon emissions, and hence help slow down climate change. Tesla’s stock dropped by $380 billion after Elon made his intentions to his stockholders clear in a recent press conference.

Musk claimed that Tesla would be able to release a $200,000 flagship Tesla model with a state-of-the-art self-driving software within three years. While Musk, as an eccentric CEO, is entitled to adopt the liberty granted to an optimistic toddler, it is particularly surprising to see the massive investor support he has garnered in the past. Tesla is frequently criticized as one of the most overvalued companies on the market, with a Price-Earning’s Ratio of over 1000! Elon wants Tesla to be Lithium-recyclable by the year 2030 which negates the need for it to mine any more. He aims for Tesla to produce One hundred gigawatts of clean electricity by 2022, and three terawatts by 2030. Despite optimistic targets, his investors feel snubbed.

Responses to his recent press conference were largely negative, with investor confidence dipping, and the stuck plummeting by nearly 5%. Previous manufacturing targets for the Tesla Model 3 fell apart at the last minute, and the cars needed to be assembled in a tent outside their California factory. With radically oscillating shares and Elon Musk’s erratic track record in ensuring that his promises are kept, investors believe that Tesla is an increasingly risky investment. It is yet to be seen whether Tesla can truly put a dent into Global Warming, or will it succumb to the iniquities of Capitalism.

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