Crypto News: Musk goes on the attack

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Musk's Trumpy Earnings Call

Admit nothing, deny everything. Always claim victory. Attack, attack, attack.

These were the rules that Roy Cohn, the lawyer and New York City political fixer, lived by while representing and mentoring Donald Trump. It also happens to be how Elon Musk, Trump's new first buddy, is now running Tesla.

As Bloomberg Opinion's Liam Denning puts it in his latest column, Tesla's latest numbers were awful. The most closely watched measure of the company's profitability was the worst it's been in years. Earnings and revenue missed analysts' estimates.

The outlook for this year is clouded by what's going on in Washington. Musk, Tesla's chief executive officer, contributed almost a quarter-billion dollars to a pro-Trump political action committee, helping elect a president who's vowed to eliminate policies supporting electric vehicles.

Despite all this, Musk declared victory on Tesla's earnings call on Wednesday. He reiterated his view that there's a path for the carmaker to become the most valuable company in the world. Next year is going to be "epic," and 2027 and 2028 are going to be "ridiculously good."

And then, he went on the offensive.

"The media reports on when I'm late, but never reports on when I'm early," Musk complained. The only people who are skeptical that Teslas will soon drive autonomously, he claimed, haven't even tried the company's technology. He predicted other carmakers eventually will have no choice but to license what Tesla calls Full Self-Driving, or FSD — a driver-assistance system he's overstated the capability of for years.

"I think the interest level from other manufacturers to license FSD will be extremely high once it is obvious that unless you have FSD, you're dead," Musk said.

And Trump's plans to do away with pro-EV policies? They don't matter.

"At this point, I think that sustainable transport is inevitable," Musk told an analyst. "It can't be stopped."

Musk and Trump watching the test flight of SpaceX's Starship on Nov. 19 in Texas. Photographer: Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America

There's no disputing that Musk has the wind at his back on the stock market, even if Tesla still has a long way to go to become the world's most valuable company.

But how much faith should investors put in Musk prognosticating that the company will grow vehicle sales this year? In October, he predicted Tesla would have such a strong fourth quarter, deliveries would be up for all of 2024. That didn't pan out, despite the company pulling out all the stops to boost sales at year-end.

There's also plenty to reason to doubt the self-described boy who cried FSD, whether you've tried the technology or not. Just ask Ross Gerber, a long-time Tesla investor.

"You know, I use Full Self-Driving every day, and now I see Waymos every day, all around me, driving perfectly fine, and my car still can't do it," Gerber said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television. "I don't care how many times Elon says that it's going to work this year, and this is the year of Full Self-Driving. It's just a bunch of crap, at this point. It doesn't work. It still doesn't work!"

Jeff Osborne, an analyst at TD Cowen, was similarly skeptical in his report summing up Musk's earnings call performance.

"We noticed an elevated level of boastful claims regarding Tesla's future and potential market cap expansion," Osborne wrote in a report. "It seemed that more than 75% of the call focused on facets of the business that don't exist and have been discussed for several years now."

News Briefs

Renault wants a premium for its stake in Nissan.
Toyota was world's top carmaker for the fifth year running.
UK braces for another dismal year of declining car output.

Before You Go

A BYD Atto 3 at the Paris motor show. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

Five years of rapid growth for Chinese electric-car manufacturers in Europe ground to a halt in 2024, as trade barriers added to the challenge of increasing sales in a stagnant market. Brands led by SAIC Motor's MG registered 3.5% fewer EVs in the region for all of 2024, according to data from automotive researcher Dataforce, marking their first annual drop since entering the market.