It's really stunning how quickly and dramatically the tide has turned for Tesla.
In 2021 The Model Y production rates had maxed out, the 3 had been dramatically updated with an industry leading heat pump architecture, and the Plaid appeared to be the most incredible car anyone could buy at any price. There were very long waiting lists for every model, sometimes as long as a year or more. Tesla was building multiple factories around the world - in parallel - and there was no end in sight.
But today there seems to be nothing they can do to keep inventory from piling up. What changed? There's still no real competition - potential candidates like the ID.4, Bolt, Ionic 5, Rivian, etc. are only produced in boutique quantities. Sure, there have been some inflation and interest rate increases, but Tesla sales seem to have slumped more than most, despite the slashed prices and new federal tax credit incentives which favor Tesla more than any other automaker whilst knocking out their only potential competition, VW and Hyundai.
I truly believe the decline is directly attributable to Elon. Just like your weird co-worker, Elon gets mysteriously grumpy every time there's a dip in Dogecoin. He spontaneously spins off into a rage of offensive statements and irrational decisions like publicly insulting his daughter or removing parking sensors. And just like your cousin, whose girlfriend dumped him for another woman while he's trying to start 3 companies, Elon is distracted and confused. He knows the product needs to continually evolve but he can't focus well enough to make logical choices, so he resorts to desperate pleas for attention, like dumbass yokes or stalkless columns.
The good news is that he is aware and did address the issue last week at the "Investor Day" event, saying that he was committed to fixing all of these issues thru the introduction of a new advertising campaign.