Nice balanced article, thanks.

Anyone who is not coming at least slightly unhinged during these circumstances would be very disturbing.

The biggest problem Musk has is the direct path from the deepest of his troubled mind to the internet via tweets. It's a shame that a brilliant mind has no control of his impulses. Human is prone to errors, but why keep making the same errors over and over again, especially for a person with tremendous influence and devout followings ?

How do you know he has no control? Have you seen the gazillions of tweets he didn't send.

420, pedo, FREE AMERICA NOW, ... to name a few

It would be scary if he has more in his mind.

Not sure about "Free America Now"..that tweet may be different. Most of us are like sheep and willing to follow whatever our masters say.
But Musk is certainly not a sheep, it takes strong data to convince him.

Charlie Manson wasn't a sheep either.. so when does " not following your masters" turn into being selfish twit?

No, he's a one percenter. Another greedy plutocrat. Period! Used to admire the guy, now absolutely convinced he's a total prick. Though maybe Tesla will eventually become profitable and not prove to be a Ponzi scheme. We'll see.

"deepest of his troubled mind"
BS

Yeah, it seems like a cult to me.....

Yep, I think you are right. That was my take out in it too. He was too stressed out by the closed factory, the pandemic, his girfriend mad at him, etc. I do hope he realizes his many mistakes re the pandemic.

I don't see CEOs of major companies and all types of industries around the world going off on Twitter blaming local governments for prioritizing public health safety, and conveniently faulting the state of California which has been supporting the company throughout its entire existence. Don't forget Tesla is not the only company led by Musk that are still benefiting from California. I guess there are timers for those companies also (maybe after IPOs ?)

I don't buy the excuse that Musk let his emotion dictate his behavior. It's not the first time he broke down and made mistake - if he ever acknowledge as such. If emotion makes him do it, then he is not fit for the job he is leading.

While that Twitter rant was unprofessional, Musk isn't faulting the state of California, only the county of Alameda.

It is amazing that the staff (Maarten and Steve) of this site can be so unprofessional in their writings. From balanced EV articles, now that Musk is against their self-imposed view of COVID as the black death. If they bothered to fact check, they would learned that Governor Newsom's orders allowed Tesla to operate - as its business is covered under THREE out of 16 categories. Moreover, Alameda County's own FAQ on orders to close specifically allowed businesses like Tesla to operate.

I urge Maarten and Steve to let the health experts advise the public on this pandemic. Allow coverage from both sides, not just experts cherry-picked to paint a certain narrative. Drop the "Tesla is going to kill people", "Musk is arrogant" articles that serve no purpose to the advancement of EV's. At least Steve was brave enough to preface his article with "it's worth exactly what you paid for it".

"While that Twitter rant was unprofessional, Musk isn't faulting the state of California, only the county of Alameda"

Telsa HQ is in the city of Palo Alto, Santa Clara county. What have they done to Tesla different from what they've done to thousands of large and small companies in the county ? What would make Tesla decide to move HQ somewhere else ? If taxation is the issue, why now ?

As a resident of the Bay Area, a tax payer of California, and a long time supporter of Tesla through the tough years past, I feel my hands have been bitten by Musk.

I wouldn't confuse any of Elons statements with any rational idea. Its an emotional response.

I think it's both. Tesla wouldn't have survived with a normal person pushing it. He isn't just smart. He bet his fortune and sanity on saving his baby. He never let anything stop him. I heard somebody at the county told him to f*ck off.

Now the rational part. The question should not be about whether he can open, but how, and under what circumstances. I wish our federal government took coronavirus seriously, but we elected an idiot who can't understand exponential growth, doesn't care to understand how South Korea style testing could have helped, so we are stuck.

I think the county and Elon are finally having the conversation they should have been having for the last month, without the extra drama.

No, I don't think so at all. Like I said. I don't think its the rest of Tesla officials or Alameda or California state that are the issue. Unless you want to completely dismiss the public statement of the Alameda official who said he was surprised because they were on target to re open May 18, and Musk suddenly decided that was not good enough and had to open ten days earlier.

All the evidence we have is that Musk is impatient, arrogant, misguided in fields other than his specialty, and socially inept.

Excuses, excuses. Every pronouncement he makes is more pressure on the workers at the Fremont plant to get back to work, whether they feel safe or not. And these rants feed into the radical right/libertarian narrative about how letting this virus spread is fine, as long as there are profits to be made. I'm done with E Lin and his over hyped, over valued Ponzi scheme! Plenty of other people can build an electric car!

Do you realize I agree, at least to a point.

Why they want to move...you should asks all the business which has been moving away for years. Why only Tesla is "last" automaker in a state with biggest consumer spending.

Not a lot of manufacturing being done in high real estate priced areas. The cost of labor is cheaper if they move to less populous states or low wage countries. But overcrowding also must be expensive for government as it has a bad effect on tax rates.

+1. Can't agree more.

"What would make Tesla decide to move HQ somewhere else ?"
Make a statement...
If you frack with the bull you may get the horns.
Nothing like a humiliating kick in the crotch to make your point.

Exactly! Elon Musk cares about Elon Musk! Period! Like every other billionaire on this planet - with the possible ex ception of Warren Buffet - he is motivated by greed and pure ego. Hopefully many of his fans, most of whom probably can't afford a Tesla, are finally realizing this.

Musk is the one who tweeted in mid March that the national daily count of new COVID19 cases would be zero on April 30. Shows he is willing to mouth off on topics he is unqualified to speak on.

So if Musk is good for the advancement of EVs there should be no criticism of him?

Apparently not according to a lot of the people who post on this site!

Exactly!! So much for the supposed altruism of cleantech geeks - I am disabused of that notion forever!

The problem we have is that on this entire planet no one else is fit to do the job Musk is doing.

Oh. stop it. No one else. Don't give me that.

Could or has (for that matter) anyone else started the likes of Tesla and SpaceX, ever? Especially both at the same time?

I'm pretty sure Musk is unique. He is allowed to have his flaws. Even if his are bigger than most.

He didn't start Tesla did he?

No I guess not. And people say he was brutal in shoving the other founders aside after he got in.

Take Musk and Tesla out of the equation and where are we now with the transition away from FF in transportation? Even post diesel scandal, would VW be making the BEV progress that they are had Tesla not gone first?

Would GM and VW be building battery factories, would Toyota have bought control of the Panasonic R&D group?

Musk's influence becomes even more apparent when you look at where he isn't: air travel, cargo trains, shipping. Those segments still resemble the auto niche prior to the Model 3.

IMO Musk will remain absolutely essential to the transition until the car market has been pushed beyond the point of no return, and until then it is incumbent upon the rest of us to just freaking deal with his various peccadillos.

Regulations will do more in the long run

No one else other than Musk, eh? Not the thousands of employees working with musk. Not JB Straubel? Not any of the other EV companies in the world?

The world could do without Musks outbursts like its SEC problems, its pedo guy and Joe Rogan 420 nonsense and the like. Those resulted in setbacks.

Musk is not a god and neither is Eric Clapton. Its Guthrie Govan.

Logic says your argument is sound. After all we have billions of other people. Yet here we are on a planet that is spinning towards disaster, and the key players that we need have not been surfacing.

Take Elon out of the picture, or worse yet allow Tesla to fall into the hands of another carmaker, and I think the BEV transition stalls. Certainly in the US, and maybe elsewhere as well. Even VW isn't beyond the tipping point quite yet IMO.

Yes I think for a few more years Musk is irreplaceable, warts and all.

Yes, he is important. All those things are true. I think people are shocked to find out he is Trump-lite. But he is devoted to EVs. That leaves a dilemma. You can buy an environmentally conscious car, but the worker treatment is not ideal and the founder has some other issues.

You buy the company (and its leaders) not just the car.

People will now be looking at alternatives. This needed to happen anyway. We need VW, Ford, GM, etc to switch. Somebody has to buy those, too, or we don't have EVs grow fast enough.

Ha that's very trumpian...I'm sure most engineering is done by others. IMHO his greatest asset us his ability to convince people like you that he's the only one who can do it AND his persistence in making the business grow

They don't have to. Musk is occupying so much of the news space, they don't need to and could not get a word in edge wise anyway.

"I don't see CEOs of major companies and all types of industries around the world going off on Twitter"
How many CEO's of the auto industry can you rattle off the top of your head other than Elon Musk?

Yeah I'm stressed out too my wife works at a hospital in New Jersey where the administration is pushing against telemedicine because it makes them less money, my son is home from school so I have to choose between working at my essential job at the local water and sewer authority and taking a voluntary furlough which may or may not allow me to collect unemployment benefits for a month until my wife can take off. I've never been on unemployment in my life, I'm 51 years old, and although I would be guaranteed it returned to work it is very stressful. So I guess I can lash out and put other people in danger because I'm feeling stressed? That is not the mentality of an adult that is the mentality of a spoiled child

Exactly! I'm DONE with Elo n!

If I was a billionaire my stress would be a lot less than it currently is.......I suppose I just need to cultivate my sense of empathy for this poor unfortunate man and the other .001 percent who are in such dire straits!

Trump isn't human. I'm beginning to think Musk thinks way too much like Trump.

Because he did a "freedon" rant or because he thinks the EPA should be dismantled? /s

I didn't know he thought EPA should be dismantled.

That's exactly what the author wants you to think. Anyone who isn't screaming Black Death is an idiot like Trump.

One is a "super engineer" who has built most valuable companies in Rockets, Cars and Payments.

Other is a Real state snakeoil man. In spite of such huge differences in IQ, achievements, temperament...if just one aspect is "similar", you make a judgement that Musk = Trump.

Tell me, does this pass even a bare minimum common sense test?

Well said, there is no comparison overall. Period.