Not long after a handful of former Tesla employees took to the internet to announce that they’d been laid off, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley released the second half of an interview with the company’s CEO. In it, Musk specifically knocks both Rivian and Lucid for “tracking toward bankruptcy” before offering his personal recommendation.
Elon Musk is a bit notorious for his staff memos and lately, a few of them have sent somewhat conflicting messages. First, he seemed to indicate that some 10% of the staff at Tesla would be cut in the near future. Then, he walked that comment back by saying that it was completely focused on salaried individuals. As of this morning, Insider has reported at least 11 instances of individuals claiming to be a part of the layoffs.
Compounding the effect, Musk recently gave a lengthy interview to the YouTube channel Tesla Owners Silicon Valley where he made the comments about Rivian and Lucid. While they’re short, it’s interesting to get the perspective of someone who’s been in the same shoes as these upstart EV brands.
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Musk is in the midst of pointing out that only Ford and Tesla remain as the two American automakers who have never gone bankrupt. Then, he somewhat unexpectedly says, “unless something changes significantly with Rivian and Lucid, they will both go bankrupt, they’re tracking to bankruptcy.”
He then talks about how if they were a plane they’d be on a course for doom but does mention that things could change. “I hope they are able to do something, but unless they cut their costs dramatically they’re in deep trouble… and will end up in the cemetery like every other car company with the exception of Tesla and Ford” he continues.
We can’t be sure what exact methods of cost-cutting he might be thinking of though. It could be that he had in mind his 10% workforce cut or something else entirely. Again, he’s got the personal experience to make an educated assessment to a greater degree than most.
Sadly, none of the group there conducting the interview follows up with an attempt to dig deeper but that’s understandable in this case. The second half of this interview is over an hour-long in total on its own and it’s full of lots of deep insights into Musk’s personal views and his memory of the history of Tesla itself. We’ll keep an eye on if and how Rivian or Lucid might respond to the comments.