Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Musk Has Destroyed His Image Gerber Kawasaki CEO

Transcript

Musk Has Destroyed His Image Gerber Kawasaki CEO · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to give the context of your position,
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: like you are a long term believer in the broader
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Tesla story, right, Your concern and what you go on
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to say about the board in particular, is that this
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: political fight between Elon Musk and the president is not
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to the benefit of the company. Have I got that right? Oh?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean it's horrific for the company, to be honest.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Have you done the actual math ross, Because what's interesting
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: is I think JP Morgan analysts have said maybe about
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: forty percent of profits are exposed here to regulatory shifts
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: and the landscape. Do you think that's as much as
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: we could see a Dentov? Is it more or less
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: than that?
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: No?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I think it could be much more detrimental because when
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you look at pricing of evs like Tesla's in particular,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: there's a severe supply and demand imbalance because the demand
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: for Tesla has dropped off, so people don't really want
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the cars, and the discounts that they get through the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: seventy five hundred dollars credit is a substantial amount of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: money relative to let's say forty thousand dollars car, So
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the typical Tesla buyers is actually sort of like a millennial.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: So these price increases definitely are bad. And when you
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: go into areas like I'm in Europe now, I mean,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: the hate for Elon.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Is huge, you know.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I'm in Italy where this was a country that you know,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Americans fought and died to end fascism here and had
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: a horrible experience under Berlusconi, which is like a billionaire
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: like Musk, and so people are just done with it.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: So this is just another like nail in the coffin,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: which I tweeted that really is going to hurt Tesla,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and I'm very upset about it, you know, I just
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: think this is totally unnecessary.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think we can bring up what you've
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: been posting a little bit earlier Ross, but I'm really
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: interested as to the latest breaking news out of Bloomberg
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: has been that Elon has helped reassert himself into the
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: sales role in Europe in the US of Tesla. Now,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: do you think that's a good move? Do you want
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: him more involved or is it the fact that if
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: he's impacting the way people feel in Italy and around
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: the EU, is that a good thing or no?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Well, there's no Teslas in Italy. I mean, they're not
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: selling any here. I've seen a handful at most, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I've driven.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: All over the place, you know, and you know, the
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: way I look at it is this Elon has a talent, obviously,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: and he's a very successful engineer and in manufacturing has
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: built Tesla up into being a huge company.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: But from a marketing and media perspective, he's destroyed his image,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and the more involved he is, it's actually worse from
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: a marketing perspective, and especially because he's not coming out
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: and saying, hey, you know, I'm sorry for you know,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: sort of pissing off everybody I've been wrong, you know
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: about Trump and you know, please buy my cars. It's
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: more just fighting and political infighting and then threatening to
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: start another party. You know, you're at this kind of
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: point where it's like, what is this guy doing? You know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: like you're supposed to be selling cars and robo taxis
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: and instead we're in a fight with the President of
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the United States, which he and and helped empower. But
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Elon, President Trump is way more powerful than you.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's literally bombing Iran and you're amassing with
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: this guy. So it's just quite frankly, it's stupid.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Ross Musk has been consistent through social media posts videos
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that he's okay with the idea that subsidies, in particular
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: direct consumer subsidies go away, because he argues Tesla has
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: this lower cost base and pricing power, and the president,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: obviously his comments dispute that. You know, he keeps claiming
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: that Elon is upset. What do you think about the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: doing away with subsidies and how Tesla's position in the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: market would be impacted.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Well, it turns out that tesla real competition isn't as
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: much EVS as it turns out to be. Like hybrid
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: vehicles like the Audi I'm driving here in Italy, which
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: is actually a great vehicle and it gets about twice
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: the gas mileage that a regular gas car would get.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It's not an EV so it doesn't have the same benefit.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: But when you actually look at competitions just on a
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: regular basis of all vehicles, you know, there's lots of
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: choices consumers have, and many of them are energy efficient,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: even if they're not EVS, and they're making those choices,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: and we're seeing in the numbers, not to mention, we're
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: seeing EV sales like in Europe actually sore and it's
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: just not Tesla. So this idea that it's not going
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to hurt Tesla because the benefits are taken away, you know,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: is really just again, it just doesn't make any sense
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: and it goes against the fundamental theories of economics. So
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: making the car more expensive means less people will buy it.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: It's simple as that, and they already have a hard
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: time sell in the car.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Ross.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I see on the Bluebeg terminal that Geba Kawasaki had
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: around two hundred and thirty five thousand shares is at
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the end of March, and that you'd been a seller
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of the stock. And I just point out as the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: audience because when I said you were coming on and
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: some people say, well, Goeba Kawasaki doesn't even hold any
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: shares at all. So I'm putting that out there. In
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: your post on X you cite the board. The idea
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that Elon Musk's political statements are not helpful is not
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: unique to you. Others share it. Have you had anything
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: from the board or do you have any sense if
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the board has any plan to act on this.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: No, they're not going to do anything, and we all
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: know that they are all paid by Elon and work
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: for Elon, and it's not an independent board. And Delaware
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: courts have said this over and over again. There's been
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: one change to the board since they did have one
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: independent board member recently. But you know the fact of
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: the matter, they're not going to do anything about it,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: you know, And I think there's some confusion. I run
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: an ETF GK ETF, and we sold our Tesla yesterday.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: We had a small position left and that's just the
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you know, one small part of what we We manage
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: over three and a half billion dollars for clients at
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Gerba Kolasaki, and many of them are big, long time
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Tesla die hard shareholders, and that's who I really represent.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: They love Tesla like I love Tesla, but Elon is
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: not doing what's best for us shareholders. So we still
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: have I checked yesterday over sixty million dollars in Tesla
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: stock for our clients. And that's what I'm advocating for.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Because I personally have sold a lot. On my personal position,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I still own some personally, you know, my cost basis
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: is two dollars and fifty cents of shares. But I
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: like keeping some shares just because it was one of
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: the best trades of my life. But you know, I
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: just don't see with evaluation of one hundred and fifty
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: times earnings, when you have Microsoft, Nvidia, and Google and
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Meta all trading under let's say forty or thirty pes
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: what's the justification for this valuation? Robots and a robotaxi
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: that doesn't really work. It just seems like there's a
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: big disconnect here, and eventually this reckoning will come as
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the stock market ultimately does work these things out. So
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I cost investors. There's going to be a
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: cost at some time for all this, and it maybe
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: hasn't happened yet. Even though the stock is down twenty
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: five percent this year, you could easily see the stock
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: drop in half if this continues. So I'm very concerned
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: about the future of Tesla and for my shareholders. So
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: that's why I'm at a year and that's why I
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: advocate on behalf of Tesla's shareholders