Hating on Tesla vs. Objective Realism – CleanTechnica

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Tesla has become a very difficult topic to cover. We’ve been covering the company obsessively for 13 years, since Tesla Model S deliveries began. We covered the company for years when most people didn’t believe in it and many even bet a lot of money against it. Those were the easy days, though. For several years, Tesla was “burning cash,” but it had a vision and a clear plan for profitability — one that made sense. There was super strong consumer demand growing for an affordable, long-range, fun electric car. Then there was the associated sales growth once the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y came out.

Objectively, when we look back, this was the story. Beforehand, many didn’t want to believe this could be the story, and we had plenty of arguments with critics, and articles about how it could and would happen. I’m happy to say that we had the story right.

In the past couple of years, though, if we’re again being as objective and accurate as possible, the story has clearly changed. Tesla’s story of rapid growth stalled. In fact, rather than grow 50% a year as it’s supposed to be doing, sales growth slowed in 2023, sales declined in 2024, and sales have declined even more in 2025. Tesla fans have been trying to explain this away with various arguments, and explain how growth will explode again in the future. But it feels a lot like Tesla critics a decade ago trying to fit a narrative and a dream on top of a very different reality.

Competition keeps growing, and innovating faster. Tesla’s share of EV markets keeps dropping. And now the company is in the middle of a giant political mess. Elon Musk has alienated and completely pushed away countless people due to his extreme right-wing dive into politics. Now, Musk is in a social media flamewar with Donald Trump and could well alienate and push away countless Trump fans. Last year, people who were trying to put a positive spin on Musk’s political activities argued that it would bring more people into the EV fold, that it was a brilliant long-term plan. Now Musk is actively burning a second humongous bridge. Is that part of the long-term plan?

There are a lot of people who believed in Tesla back in 2012 or 2015 or 2018 and still believe in its rapid growth and innovation. I’ve noticed far more people who were optimistic about the company a decade ago and are pessimistic about it now, but there are still numerous fans who think it will win in robotaxis, win in AI, and win in robotics — and that will bring back the company’s hyper-growth story. This is a sharp departure from Tesla’s initial vision, business plan, and success, though. And it’s a big leap of faith to think that Tesla is going to win in all of these potentially emerging markets. It’s also hard to trust Elon Musk’s judgement when it has been so poor on other topics in recent years.

Again, it’s super hard to be objective and realistic on these topics today. But think about these few things: 1) What was Elon Musk’s focus and public behavior 10 years ago versus today? 2) What was Tesla’s focus 10 years ago versus today? 3) How much did Elon Musk distract himself with non-Tesla and non-SpaceX topics 10 years ago, and how often did he tweet out false information back then?

The times, they are a changin’. People change. Companies change. And, unfortunately, people and companies lose their way. It’s not being a hater to point out that Tesla is facing challenges it didn’t face 5 or 10 years ago. It’s being realistic.

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