The Numerika editorial team has just learned some sad news. From a reliable source, Tesla is reportedly no longer the world’s number one electric car manufacturer and has been overtaken by Chinese BYD, the former electric battery manufacturer, in which the famous American investor Warren Buffet invested 230 million dollars in 2008. Always a good nose, that one.
Obviously, it’s a bit disappointing (a pleonasm). After all that Elon Musk had led us to believe. Well, we had a feeling something was rotten in the kingdom of Elon when we saw the design of the Cybertruck. We were emotional about it at the time, thinking it was some kind of April Fool’s joke or a hoax on X, but no, it was indeed a real prototype, a real car, which was truly going into production.
With the help of artificial intelligence, we investigated Elon Musk’s statements about this very strange vehicle.
« There’s always a chance that the Cybertruck will flop because it’s so different. But I don’t care. I really love it, even if others don’t. Other pickups all copy each other, but the Cybertruck looks like it was designed by aliens from the future. »
Well said, Elon. At least we can’t accuse you of lacking realism. It’s true that when you’re paid tens of millions of dollars a day, you can completely disregard what you’re doing. One more or one less small failure isn’t going to change your number of yachts or billionaire villas in Palm Beach much.
« We dug our own grave with the Cybertruck. It’s one of those special products that only come along once in a while. And special products that come along once in a while are incredibly difficult to bring to market, to reach production volume, and to be successful. »
That might be a bit strong, as Tesla isn’t dead yet. But it must be admitted that the Cybertruck must have cost the company an arm and a leg. Fewer than 60,000 have been sold since 2023, whereas Elon predicted an average of 250,000 per year. One million had been pre-ordered. One can imagine the disappointment of those who were fooled by this scam with its muscular and virile design.
« It’s the ultimate defense technology for the apocalypse. […] We emptied an entire Tommy gun magazine into the door, Al Capone style, and no bullet went through. »
That must be the explanation. Even if Donald Trump‘s presidency resembles it (for us Europeans), the Apocalypse ultimately didn’t arrive, which made the Cybertruck a little less interesting.
However, let’s be honest (one of our major competitive advantages at Numerika), the Cybertruck is not the sole cause of Tesla’s poor performance. It must be said that Elon spared no effort to torpedo his own brand. Nazi salute, support for the far-right in Germany, compromise with the Trump government (with whom he eventually fell out too) have, to put it politely, tarnished his reputation and turned the entrepreneur to whom nothing resists into a racist, extremist, swollen with pride, irrational, and frankly almost mad tech bad boy.
In France and Germany, two important markets for Tesla, sales have collapsed, the Teutons and cheese-eaters probably not understanding South African white humor. A regrettable misunderstanding probably attributable to a Google Translation problem or a cultural difference in political sensitivity. We will probably never know. The fact remains that in Europe, Tesla now sells fewer vehicles than Volkswagen.
No, what really hurt Tesla was… the end of financial aid for electric vehicles in the United States, thanks to Donald, Elon’s great friend (ex-friend), notoriously known for hating anything that could help save the climate (electric vehicles, for example). Ah, Donald!
Bad luck, as the American market is Tesla’s most important, and Americans are sensitive to their wallets, just like the rest of the inhabitants of this planet, this measure undermined the marketing of the Model Y, C, and other vehicles of the brand, not to mention our famous Cybertruck, whose eulogy should not be long in coming.
Add to that a lack of range renewal (naturally, they had to deal with the Cybertruck first), constantly unkept promises, such as autonomous driving still not active despite Elon’s multiple declarations that no one believes anymore, except his shareholders, which remains an enigma to us. And then, we must not diminish the merit of BYD, which entered the market with higher quality, more innovative, and cheaper vehicles.
All this means that the brand, which was supposed to produce 20 million vehicles per year by 2030, barely produced 1.64 million from its various factories worldwide in 2025 (compared to 1.8 million the previous year). Well, there are still 4 years left. It’s possible. We believe it. Uh, no… it’s still going to be complicated, but, well, it’s okay, since Elon, who is clever, changed his tune and declared that anyway, Tesla was not a car manufacturer, but a manufacturer of multitasking humanoid robots and autonomous cars.
Oh, okay. That changes everything!
Even if that’s true, there’s a lot of work to be done (a slippery slope). Regarding autonomous vehicles, Tesla doesn’t shine with its lead. While only a few autonomous Teslas drive (with a human safety driver in the front seat) on the streets of Austin, Texas, Google operates more than 2500 Waymos (driverless) in Austin, San Francisco, and other cities (even if it sometimes comes with unpleasant surprises: see our excellent report on the subject).
Regarding robots: we’re waiting to see, since apart from a rigged demo – humans remotely activated supposedly autonomous robots at a cocktail party – Chinese manufacturers are already mass-producing autonomous humanoid robot units that serve multiple purposes.
So Elon, we’re waiting for you! You’ve proven your genius and your ability to outperform the market with Tesla (once upon a time) and with SpaceX, but now, you need to come back, put the Nazi salutes away, stop the Cybertrucks, shut your big mouth, and focus on the business. Maybe you’ll find the flame again.
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