Liam Denning, Columnist

Tesla Needs Cheap EVs. Musk Offers a Robotaxi Meme

A reveal promised for Aug. 8 is the perfect distraction for the carmaker’s tumbling stock.

April 8, 2024 at 12:34 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Who is in the driver’s seat?
Photographer: Maja Hitij/Getty Images Europe

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The great thing about X, the rebranded Twitter owned by Elon Musk, is its frictionless capacity for escalation.

Let’s back up to several hours before that post on what was a bizarre Friday even by the standards of Tesla Inc. and its chief executive. Late that morning, a Reuters story citing several unnamed sources and internal messages reported that Tesla has scrapped plans for a cheaper electric vehicle dubbed the Model 2. Tesla’s stock dropped by more than 5% in short order. Soon after, Musk replied to a tweet noting the story, accusing Reuters of “lying (again).” The stock made back some lost ground, but still ended the day down 3.6%. Less than an hour after that, Musk tweeted again, with the announcement pictured above. Tesla’s stock jumped in after-hours trading.