Musk Responds to Concerns of Demand and Twitter

Tesla demand and reputation are on the rise, as well as the stock

Tesla

Tesla's fourth quarter and 2022 numbers beat expectations, and the company is stronger than ever, but convincing nervous investors is a tough sell. A significant stock sell-off saw Tesla lose 70 percent of its value last year, and critics predict doom. Even some hardcore Tesla fans harshly criticized Elon Musk, demanding the board step in. But these negative narrative headlines don't show up on Tesla's bottom line.

Musk took over Twitter in October of 2022, and not long after that, Tesla's stock started to spiral downward. It certainly didn't help that Musk was selling many of his Tesla shares to pay for Twitter, and the overall market was turning bearish. However, many linked Musk's takeover of Twitter and subsequent controversial tweets as having a detrimental impact on Tesla.

Twitter is Helping Tesla's Brand

An investor question during the quarterly call cited brand damage due to partisan tweets and asked how any brand image would be mitigated. Of course, Musk, who has changed his Twitter handle to Mr. Tweet, knows all about the condemnation of his actions on Twitter. It seemed he was waiting to unleash his response. "Well, let me check my Twitter account," said Musk, "Okay, so I've got 127 million followers. It continues to grow very rapidly. That suggests that I'm reasonably popular."

But it's not just the number of followers; Musk will surprise people daily when he randomly joins a conversation. "I'm the most interactive account, social media account, I think, maybe in the world, certainly on Twitter, and that's actually predated the Twitter acquisition. So I think Twitter is actually an incredibly powerful tool for driving demand for Tesla... So the net value of Twitter, apart from a few people who are complaining, is gigantic, obviously."

Tesla Demand Increasing

Musk encourages others, including his competition, to use Twitter to drive demand for their products because he has seen demand jump to new levels at Tesla. "The most common question we've been getting from investors is about demand. I want to put that concern to rest. Thus far in January, we've seen the strongest orders year-to-date than ever in our history. We currently are seeing orders at almost twice the rate of production."

2023 Price Fluctuations

That demand may have been sparked by Tesla's considerable price drops globally. In fact, the demand is so high the company has already raised the price of the Model Y in a few regions. According to Tesla's CEO, Zachary Kirkhorn, the company will continue to look for price adjustments, "As we look towards 2023, we are moving forward aggressively leveraging our strength and cost." Kirkhorn says Tesla is "holding steady on plans to rapidly increase volume, while improving overhead efficiency, which is the most effective method to retain strength in our operating margins.

While Kirkhorn admits the cost reduction will impact the operating margin in the short term, the company believes the long-term outlook remains strong, especially as the world transitions to a deflationary environment, where costs are likely to come down.

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Tesla Holiday Update Wishlist - Tesla App Edition

@niccruzpatane

So, with Halloween all squared away, the next big holiday coming up is Christmas. Each year, Tesla releases a big Holiday update packed with features. Last year’s update included some awesome features, including alternate routes, the Vision upgrade for Park Assist, Speed Cameras and Traffic Light icons, and the Automatic Blind Spot indicator, among others.

We already know that update 2024.44 - the Holiday Update Branch - is coming with Blind Spot Monitoring while Parked, Supercharger Improvements, and more. But, we’ve got a ton of good ideas that we hope will make the list, so put down your pumpkin spice, and grab your egg nog. It’s the holidays, and it’ll be Cybertruck’s first Christmas, so let’s celebrate!

Apple Watch App

First up—the Apple Watch app. This has been a highly requested feature over the past couple of years, and it looks like Tesla is listening. Tesla has apparently already begun development to support the Apple Watch in app update 4.38, so we’re expecting this to arrive as part of the big Holiday update. We’d love to see an equivalent app for Android-based watches, too.

Phone Left on Charger Alert

It’s easy to forget your phone inside of the vehicle, especially if it’s on the phone dock. A simple app alert that a phone has been left in the vehicle would be really useful. Tesla could potentially even tell the difference between a driver’s phone and a passenger’s phone, depending on the vehicle’s profile being used or which doors were open and closed.

Either way, just receiving an app notification if a phone is left in the car would be really useful, especially since your phone is your car key.

Light Show Support

Tesla Lightshows are great, but they could be made even better with Tesla app support. At the very least, it’d be great to be able to start/schedule or stop a light show from the app.

To really make light shows shine, Tesla could add the ability to create a light show directly from the app. Right now creating a light show involves using the open-source app xLights on a computer, so a simplified version of it running in the app would make it accessible to a lot more users.

Precondition Battery Button

Similar to an in-vehicle preconditioning button for 3^rd party chargers, the Tesla App should also have a button to precondition the battery. This will make it easy for users, especially those who don’t have home charging – to get their vehicles ready for DC Fast Charging before departing.

Garage Door Controls

Tesla owners with HomeLink can control their garage doors directly from the vehicle. However, the Tesla app currently only allows users to open the first programmed garage door and doesn’t give the user access to any of the other programmed doors. Adding the option to choose which garage door to open via the HomeLink button would be a valuable addition—especially useful when paired with Actually Smart Summon.

Drive Stats

While Tesla already records and displays charging sessions in the app’s Charge Stats section, it’d be really helpful if Tesla also added the ability to record drives. That way, you could easily track how much your vehicle was driven on a particular day, week, or over the course of the year.

If you have any other suggestions, let us know in our forums. Who knows, some Tesla product managers may even be listening.

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Tesla Adds Interest-Free Payment Plan to Tesla Shop - FSD Payment Plan Next?

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has added payment plan options to its shop items for the first time. They’ve partnered with Klarna, a deferred payment provider, to spread the cost of items across multiple payments. For now, this appears to be limited to the Tesla Shop in the United States—no support for other regions quite yet.

Payment Options

Klarna’s primary payment option allows buyers to get 0% APR for 6 weeks, with 4 payments. The payment schedule is essentially one payment every two weeks for whichever product you buy - enabling you to buy now, and pay later with 0% financing.

For example, the payment schedule for the $420 Wall Connector is evenly divided into four portions. Of course, you’d also have to pay for shipping and taxes, both of which will be included in your first payment.

For some of Tesla’s more expensive Shop options - like the Cybertent, this could be a fantastic means for some owners to pick up something more expensive without having to worry about interest charges on their credit card.

Klarna also offers some other payment schedules, which do have interest. While these are far more expensive and are more like credit cards, they still provide buyers a means to buy now and pay over time. These are all open loans as well, so you can pay them down at a faster rate, thereby reducing the overall interest.

FSD Payment Options?

We’d love to see an equivalent payment option available for Tesla’s FSD purchase, which is currently $8,000, even if it's bought after the vehicle purchase. The high upfront cost is likely one reason why Tesla’s FSD subscription is so popular.

It’s likely that purchasing FSD is much more popular at the time of vehicle purchase, as owners can roll the cost of FSD into their financing rather than paying the full $8,000 later on.

IPO Filing

Interestingly enough, along with today’s news that Klarna is working with Tesla, Klarna has also filed for an IPO in the United States. It is one of the first financial tech (FinTech) companies to file for an IPO in 2025 and, interestingly, one of the first European companies to conduct an IPO in the United States.

For those who trade in the financial sector, this will be one to watch—Klarna was valued at around $46 billion in 2021 and is now valued at approximately $15 billion. Partnering with a large and well-known brand like Tesla could uplift Klarna, but that’s all financial speculation.

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