Elon Musk doesn't want to sell EVs any more. Have you seen Elon's latest post on X, where he endorsed that idea democracy should be replaced by a republic of "high T alpha males and aneurotypical people"? Even I am rethinking how I feel about Tesla. If I have to choose, I will choose democracy over Elon Musk.
Tesla has done that a few times. Hasn't boosted take rate that much. Maybe it would now, but hard to say. Don't think it will until you don't actually have to pay attention.
I agree Elon is tied to the Tesla brand image and at present that is having a negative effect on sales and that seems set to continue. As you note Elon does not seem that committed to new models but developing FSD, he has been wildly optimistic about FSD for years now and my guess is that he still is, while there has been considerable improvement, real FSD has to solve all the edge cases and that it is a far from trivial problem, if they deploy too early even a single FSD fatality would likely be a huge issue.
I have owned a 2018 Tesla model 3 since 2018 (now 5.5 years). Tesla customer service is terrible. When I pay $60 K for a car - I want the same level of customer service as lexus. I have been treated like I bought a Chevy Spark. I am not buying another Tesla even though it is technically a cool car. Now that Musk has endorsed Trump - one more reason to stay away from every thing touched by Musk. Smart businessmen do not take political sides.
