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May 20, 2025
Is It in Tesla’s Best Interests for Elon Musk To Stay on as CEO?
Elon Musk is no stranger to dominating the news cycle, whether for his controversial purchase of Twitter (now X), his helming of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), or his tenure as CEO of Tesla — the latter position being one he intends to retain for at least five years, barring unforeseen circumstances, per Quartz.
Making remarks at the Qatar Economic Forum on May 20, Musk signaled that he would remain on as CEO of the world’s most prominent electric vehicle brand over the course of the next five years, “unless I die,” he quipped.
His comments come as Tesla continues to endure a string of negative news stories, whether related to the March recall (the eighth so far) of nearly all Cybertrucks on U.S. roads or to Musk’s relationship with President Donald Trump.
Musk was questioned about the spate of Tesla owners attaching stickers to their vehicles that read, “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy,” and his response indicated that he was relatively unfazed over the matter.
“Yes, we’ve lost some sales perhaps on the left but we’ve gained them on the right. The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand,” Musk said.
Elon Musk Could Be Weighing on Tesla’s Fortunes, Poll Suggests, as Revenue and Deliveries Decline
As Quartz outlined, Tesla has been staring down some unpleasant financial metrics as of late. In its latest quarterly earnings report released on April 22, Tesla saw revenue fall by near-double digits (9%) during its first quarter as compared to the year prior, with its auto segment observing a more significant revenue decline of 20%. Deliveries also disappointed, with sales of 336,681 representing a 13% decline year-over-year. Tesla’s stock price shed 50% of its value between December 2024 and April of this year, with a recent rebound being at least partially attributed to the CEO’s hint that he would be leaving DOGE shortly.
An Axios Harris poll gauging the automaker’s brand reputation suggested that Musk’s involvement in politics had significantly damaged its image.
“Tesla was in 8th place in the 2021 reputation ranking of America’s 100 most visible companies, but last year tumbled to 63rd and now is near the very bottom at 95th,” Axios business editor Dan Primack observed, while also writing that political polarization was evident in the results, with Democrats exhibiting less favorable opinions on Tesla than Republicans.
And according to Politico, anonymous sources within the GOP ranks have indicated that the Trump administration is quietly moving away from Musk, with both the president’s posts — and those of his subordinates — mentioning the Tesla CEO much less frequently of late.
“He’s finished, done, gone. He polls terrible. People hate him,” Politico cited a GOP operative as saying. “He’d go to Wisconsin thinking he can buy people’s votes, wear the cheese hat, act like a 9-year-old… It doesn’t work. It’s offensive to people.”
Musk Has Signaled a ‘Return to Business’
In what could be construed as an effort to rekindle a positive public profile for himself and the brands he is associated with, Musk has made a number of comments as of late indicating that he would be curtailing his political spending in addition to stepping away from his role within DOGE.
“In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” he told those present at the Qatar Economic Forum.
“I think I’ve done enough,” Musk added, as CNN detailed. “Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason.”
Discussion Questions
Is it in Tesla’s best interests for Elon Musk to stay on as CEO? Why or why not? Who would be a suitable replacement?
Is Musk’s assertion that lost sales from those who identify as left-leaning individuals are mitigated by those on the opposite side of the aisle accurate?
How can Tesla navigate its way back to previous profitability? Is this possible in the near future, and if not, what barriers are most evident?
Poll
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Patricia Vekich Waldron
Contributing Editor, RetailWire; Founder and CEO, Vision First
Verlin Youd
SVP Americas, Ariadne
Doug Garnett
President, Protonik
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Whether you like him or not, Elon has been a driving force behind Tesla. However, to instill investor confidence he needs to devote the bulk of his time to the company. He also needs to cut back his political activities which are both distraction and damaging for the Tesla brand.
Completely disagree. Musk is tainted and needs to leave the company. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of time until the company goes out of business. Without Musk, Tesla would never have grown to the size it got to but it is time for him to move on. Additionally, the failure of the CyberTruck is 100% on him. His ego led him to completely misread the market. A more traditional pickup would be selling well today.
Without Musk, it is entirely possible that Tesla would have flourished. The most immutable law in marketing is: it is better to be first than to be better. Tesla was an early leader, and had an interesting product, well before Musk bought into the company.
He’s done. He used to have a reputation as an innovator, but now he’s seen as a destroyer. (Cue the video with the chainsaw.) Tesla can’t recover with Musk at the helm.
You summed it up perfectly! The damage to the brand is done. And to be fair, Elon was already doing damage to Tesla before his political forays – spending so much time with Twitter/X at the cost of time spent leading Tesla was already causing pain. I don’t believe Tesla’s board has much more tolerance for this.
And look at the mess he made of Twitter/X. It’s so bad that people still call it by its old name!
The damage he has done to Tesla’s brand, combined with his horrific mismanagement of Twitter and the DOGE escapade suggests he lacks the expertise to lead an organization successfully. Tesla and SpaceX have been successful because of the leaders managing the day-to-day business, it would seem. His leadership skills are…lacking.
For some time it has been clear that Tesla’s needs in a CEO have outgrown what Musk knows how to do so well. Today, their cars are failing competitively against far better whole cars, the truck was an unmitigated disaster (Musks only attempt to lead fundamental design). And Musks self-mythology about doing nothing in the ways successful automotive companies work is now hurting Tesla’s future. They need dealerships, repair shops, and advertising – all things far beyond Musk’s wheelhouse. The issues are not primarily his politics but those don’t help. But would he leave and do what’s best for the company? That’s not clear.
Great last point … it would seem ego may not let him make the right decision.
Elon needs to focus on Tesla, not playing in politics, which he has no experience and he has horrible management skills. Unfortunately for Elon, the board in Tesla has already signaled that they are looking for his replacement. Follow the money. The Cybertruck is a mess and a losing proposition. It will be a worthless dinosaur in the near future, and he cannot give them away. His market share of all EVs, has been declining over the last 3 years, and it is now falling off a cliff in many markets, especially China, France, Great Britain, and most of Europe. His cars are overpriced, electric antiques that rapidly lose their value, that are often hated and despised by potential buyers for what they represent. Elon cannot save this brand, unless he steps down, and Tesla starts to sell newly designed vehicles, with new technology, at half the price. There are 5 brands in China that offer more in their cars, starting at $12K. Remember Delorean Motor Cars???
Whatever anyone thinks of his political interests, Elon is the best person in that seat, for the short to mid-term. This allows him to tie in his other businesses which work with Tesla, namely, AI and battery production, ensuring an efficient and coordinated platform with common resources.
Tesla will unfortunately go out of business unless he leaves. There is no way around it.
And this is a retail question….how, exactly?
Now if you want to …bundle him, as it were with Howard Schultz and John Mackey and other “visionaries” whose inability to keep their mouths closed ultimately became a liability, I guess we could say it’s the old founder dilemma.(aka: What happens when they need to go and won’t?)
I would put Schultz in a different category. Sure, he has his opinions and politics, however he has also proven multiple times that he can return and rescue a struggling business.
Don’ know what the RetailWire logic was. But Tesla sells cars via retail — their own private label stores. It’s one and the same. In fact, Musk’s inability to accept he might be wise to do what other retail car sellers do (dealerships, repair networks, advertising, etc) is a major retail liability. So it makes sense to me. As I noted in my comment, Tesla’s core problem’s aren’t his inability to keep his mouth shut but how poorly he does outside of his core understanding. When that understanding is right-on, he delivers brilliantly. But he has a narrow range. Schultz sorted out growth for Starbucks because he had a wide-ranging intelligence and ability to rely on people with key strengths. Musk doesn’t.
Noted…and as I was writing (the original post) I thought “well they do sell cars”; but still this whole topic seems like a thinly disguised attempt to jump on a trendy issue that is peripheral to retail, at best. There are so many more useful things we could discuss.
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It’s never good news for brands who have a polarizing ceo, especially when they are entering a new phase of growth and competition.
Perhaps that’s the new definition of a start-up – a company that still benefits from a polarizing CEO. Getting beyond start-up requires a CEO that opens up greater opportunity over time rather than less.
He’s already damaged his brand with his most supportive potential customer set. Can he recover? Maybe. However, I don’t think it is likely as he has shown where his loyalties lie, and it is clearly not with current Tesla customers. I’ve been seeing a lot more new alternative electric vehicles on the road lately.
It would be a mistake for Elon Musk to replace himself as CEO for a number of reasons, but here are four of them.
1.) The largest shareholders trust Elon Musk, and for good reason. Elon Musk is brilliant, high-tech, innovative, and successful, to say the least. There is no doubt that he is the right person for the job.
2.) If stock value is the issue, it soon won’t be. In April, Tesla stock recovered 28%, and it continues to trend upward in May.
3.) Political hatred is also a bad reason, since most hateful people don’t drive Teslas.
4.) If the purpose is to prevent jackasses from “keying” and burning cars, and dealerships, replacing Musk is the wrong solution. Empowering law enforcement to do their job and incarcerating these idiots is the right solution.
So when sales are tanking because the core customers, who is mostly on the liberal side, is turned off by the extreme right wing views of the CEO to the point where they are not longer buying the products, that’s not a reason to change CEOs? How long do you wait? Unitl a Chapter 11 filing?
And the stock is being pumped by Chinese, Gulf, and “meme” investor groups, who all have ulterior motives – its earnings report would have crashed any normal company.
The brand damage is done, and there’s no turning back. The Cybertruck is already in the history books alongside the Edsel largely as a failure. How many recalls is too many? While some may claim that Elon’s skills at innovating and past accomplishments with Tesla earn him the right to continue as CEO, this is just another example of not knowing when the time has come to move on. Where are the self-driving robo-taxis Elon promised? There are other companies with more advanced self-drive capability. Tesla hasn’t delivered and at some point, the CEO has to take ownership of the failures and delays. While we’ve only heard rumors that the board has been shopping for a replacement – and yes these have been denied – these rumors typically only start when there is some truth to it.
As in any organization, Tesla, its employees and shareholders deserve a CEO fully focused on the company’s growth, value creation and ability to effectively compete in the market through innovation. Unfortunately, Musk has become a damaging, politicized and negative distraction in direct contrast to Tesla’s goals, harming the brand and placing long-term success at risk.
Musk is brilliant. If Tesla is to survive, it needs to completely reboot its technology. Today, Other EVs are better and less expensive, and longer battery life is just around the corner. The question is, can Tesla compete without Musk’s fix?
He said he must stay out of politics (including X). He personally destroyed the business. Did he not understand his customers? Did he not know that the right trashes EVs?
Maybe the big question is “Does he care?”
And enter rehab for his reported and obvious drug addiction.
Elon Musk is a leader, innovator, and, obviously, one of the most successful businesspeople on the planet. His political interests took him away from the company, but now he’s back. If he can stay focused, he should regain the confidence people once had for Tesla. One big innovation for the company (and the car industry), and he’ll be on top.
I don’t think it matters at this point. The flaws in Tesla’s manufacturing have been manifesting long before Elon decided to enter politics. Yes they need a fresh start with a new CEO, and that will help. But the bigger issue is that other companies now have a big enough head start, at a better price point, so I don’t think Tesla can catch up. Charging stations are now connector agnostic so even Teslas can charge almost anywhere. New research on longer lived batteries is emerging as we speak and it isn’t coming from Tesla. It may be time for them to look for a buyer who can resolve their quality control issues and help them continue their work under better ownership.
Just look at what the Chinese EV manufacturers have been able to design and build. They offer interesting vehicles with more amenities and a longer range between charges. If the U.S. ever allows BYD, SAIC, or NIO to enter the American market, we’ll be able to see if the reputation for brilliance bestowed upon Musk is real or not.