Things are getting lonely at Tesla for billionaire CEO Elon Musk. According to a new report in The Atlantic by former Jalopnik editor in chief Patrick George, the pioneer electric car brand has steadily shed some of its most important talent over the years, which has left Musk – whose success has appeared dependent on a long-cultivated public persona – all the more exposed as the company experiences tough times.
While Tesla was reporting record sales as recently 2023, the company has had a rough 2025 so far, with profits dropping 71% over the first three months of the year. Just a couple of weeks ago, Tesla experienced its single largest drop in stock price in one day, with investors reportedly pocketing $4 billion through short positions against it. There are a number of factors bearing down on the formerly unassailable car company, to the point that its current troubles seem overdetermined.
Most prominent is Musk’s backing of President Donald Trump to the hilt over the 2024 campaign, as well as their recent falling out. “The chain-saw-wielding, far-right centibillionaire has turned off traditionally liberal electric-car buyers,” George explains. “The MAGA faithful never stepped up to take their place, and they’re less likely to do so now that the Trump-Musk bromance is over.” Having ensured over the years that the public’s perception of the Tesla brand is bound with him as its chief executive, Musk can potentially alienate customers in ways that others with similarly staggering amounts of wealth (e.g. Jeff Bezos or Larry Ellison) avoid by simply keeping a lower profile.
Beyond Musk’s recent politics-related travails, he is also facing a long-running, continuous brain drain out of Tesla. The company has lost a third of its executives since last year, and key figures like chief engineer Doug Field and head of Tesla’s all-important charging network Rebecca Tinucci are both gone, the latter in a layoff that got rid of her 500-person team. Both have remained in the industry, bringing their talents to Ford and Uber, respectively. While George acknowledges that other key figures remain in the company, “the departures put more pressure on Musk: He doesn’t have the workforce he once did to build […] groundbreaking electric vehicles.”
Beyond the cost to Musk and Tesla specifically, George argues that the company’s diminishment could negatively affect the entire automobile industry. “Other carmakers have spent years racing to build cleaner cars in large part to keep up with Tesla,” he writes. “Without the company’s continued dominance, it’s easy to see a heavily polluting industry fall back on old habits.”
