Leaderboard

Every manufacturer has some issue where they fall short. Tesla's problem is that they can't seem to build a car with consistent quality anywhere close to what GM is doing. And it is a matter of percentages also. In 2021, Tesla produced 936,222 vehicle for their entire lineup globally. But they can't get their door panels to line up correctly each time or for a new vehicle not to brick itself 5 days after delivery. In 2021, GM sold 835,269 Silverado/Sierras just in North America. Add in the 97k from the Colorado/Canyon and GM produces as many trucks as Tesla's entire lineup. GM built 6.3 million vehicles globally in 2021 and that's down from a peak of 10.01 million in 2016. So while GM has experienced some design quality issues... generally the build quality is pretty good and consistent. Telsa also complicates matters by making running upgrades to their vehicles.... so that two cars coming off the same production line within days of each other can end up with different parts. So just having a 2022 Tesla doesn't mean anything... you need to know which version 2022 you got. If that were being done by say, Honda, I'd have a lot more confidence in the process.

There are two types of CEOs that are hands on. Those that hire competent folks to lead their divisions and report to the CEO on what is going on and allow the CEO to give back their thoughts, directions wants, etc. to those division leaders and let them act on it. Then you have the Micro Manager CEO that feels they have to be hands on in everything and while it works in the short term, long term it is draining on the person but also a hinderance to solid profitable growth of a company and the divisions. Musk is the micro manager that is too much hands on and distracted by still wanting to be in the mud. If he wants to be that heavily involved in the day to day projects, then it would be best to step down as CEO and focus on where his passion lies in creating things. There is a difference between a visionary and a micro manager and Musk falls in the later category now.

Oh it absolutely is because he hires egos rather than talent. Any VP of Production at any other manufacturer would have been sacked ages ago. Sure he steals top talent, but he steals it from Apple, Microsoft, and sometimes Uber… but no one who actually has experience…you know… building cars. If he hired people who knew how to build cars, then he could delegate that to those people and he could go off building rockets to Mars or whatever. He’s arguably better at delegating over at Tesla solar and SpaceX. At Tesla Solar he just bought out another company and kept most of the management. At SpaceX he hired a rocket engineer and stole a bunch of people from Boeing.

Beat me posting again. Thank you for sharing.

$200k price, long hood proportions, intended to compete with high-end MB EQS, Ultra-Cruise (the next step above Super-Cruise), 400 mile range, auto-dimming glass roof, and hand built

It's a matter of focus and attention. Musk himself admits to working 14-16 hour days. That's a sign that he is unable or unwilling to delegate or hire competent people. Mary Barra doesn't need to get involved in AC Delco or GM Financial because there are very skilled people at the helms. Mary came up from the production line where she worked quality control on the Pontiac Grand Prix, but she's not out there sticking her fingers in each panel seam these days. When you have the right people in the right roles, things run much smoother.

It's a significant difference in managerial style. Elon strikes me as micro manager in as much as a CEO/President can be. He personally heads up all of his other projects. Mary Barra and the GM Board, on the other hand, hires competent (arguably) leadership to run those things and they just have to report results up to the board once or twice a month. GM has well stocked leadership team that can function on their own. Would anyone here not trust Mark Reuss - President of General Motors, to handle his stuff properly? Dan Berce is CEO of GM Financial and a SVP for GM. He was with Americredit from 1990 - 2010, serving first as CFO, then President, then CEO. AC Delco has its own Director. The list goes on of course with very capable people you've never heard of. Elon has a leadership team too, of course, but he has much more direct control over individual aspects of the business and the side businesses.

You're going to list things like merchandise, clothing, model cars and pretend GM isn't into those same things(and every other manufacturer because that's just smart business)? What do you call NASCAR/IMSA/IndyCar sponsorships? It certainly isn't like they're using any of that stuff in street cars so would these just be "distractions"? Yeah, I 100% agree with you that Elon's distracted because his company is making hats. If they stopped making hats, shirts, and hoodies, I'm sure they would have higher quality vehicles. Could you imagine how much money GM could invest in QC if they stopped sponsoring NASCAR and IndyCar teams?!?! Hell, if they would just stop with their garbage-@ss commercials they'd be doing better! Tesla doesn't pay for advertising. GM must be distracted by producing garbage commercials.

Red Line is and always has been merely a sticker and blackout package

The Blazer looks sharp in that pic... wonder what the range will be.

Thank you Drew, this is a perfect example of solid leadership and another is the former CEO of IBM Lou Gerstner who not only built a deep bench of managers and turned IBM around to be one of the best service tech companies today still with the largest Main Frame computer business, but when he retired, he took his severance package which was over half a billion dollars over the next 10 years as he believed he had built and would be leaving a management team in place that would continue to lead IBM forward with solid growth and proved it by staking his retirement on it. To this day, he is a true visionary and leader who brought into an ailing and failing legacy company only a few people as he believed the existing staff just needed leadership that could inspire them and believe in them with the right guidance to lead their own teams. This I believe he delivered on in excess. A great American Company. Lou Gerstner - Wikipedia

Thank you for proving the point of Common sense is not so common. Since you clearly cannot or are not willing to look at the big picture of all the distractions for a startup versus a well-established business. I listed from big to small the distractions and you can only focus on a small clothing section and then jump to Nascar rather than the distractions of Space-X, Boring Company, Solar, Powerwall that are much more financially draining distractions on top of his current favorite pet project the Tesla Bot. These all drain from him the ability to look at the bigger picture of Tesla only in making sure it is a leading-edge quality auto company. At this point, I predict 2025 Tesla will be a has-been company compared to legacy auto makers that will surpass it and Tesla will have to start looking at merging with another company to survive.

Totally agree with what ccap41 has said, I do not see the delivery service centers not having a test model. Tesla currently has this ability, Rivian is on record as saying they will as they open up their delivery/service centers have demo units. Ford pushing to go fixed price, order online and pickup at a customer deliver/service center has also stated that demo units will still be an important part for customers. I expect some might try to not have demo units, but then I think they will cut off a certain segment that will want this before buying.

My assumption, they may go away with the current dealer model but it would be silly to not have vehicles to test drive still. I think that would give them a pretty big advantage to still keep one of each vehicle in stock and maybe a top trim and bottom trim to compare.

You realize Tesla doesn't make any of that merchandise...just licensed the name and image to 3rd parties in China that make tchotchkes...

I could care less about Musk tweets, Tesla is hurting from growing bigger due to the distractions that Musk seems to think Tesla has to have. A list of Distractions currently and there could be more. Space X The Boring Company Boring Company Flamethrowers Variety of Tesla Toys Tesla Tequila Tesla Bot Tesla Giga Belt Buckles Tesla Cyber Whistle Tesla Cyberquad ATV for kids Tesla Radio Flyer electric Model S kid car Tesla Powerwall Tesla Solar Roof Tesla Surf Boards Tesla diecast model cars Tesla Desktop Supercharger Tesla Desktop Powerbank Tesla Hats Tesla Shirts, Coats, Hoodies, etc. Clothing line Cyber Currency Speculation I get that established companies sell supporting stuff to their fans, but in this case before getting the company profitable and then even when accounting has been used to show the company to be profitable, the leadership rather than focus on fixing fit/finish quality issues, the smoke and mirrors show goes up on deflecting from promised actual products to delivering auto's that do not have the problems Tesla has today. Lets also not forget the big lie of self driving that has not yet been actually delivered and yet sold for the last decade to people and has cost people their lives due to alpha and beta testing of the auto software on the customers. Do not forget all the sexual harassment issues Tesla is trying to hide because of their erratic CEO. On top of the fact that since you focused on his social media tweeting, his manipulation that if you or I did, would for sure have our butts in jail.