Tesla Is Toast

Tesla used to be the whole story. The innovation. The design. The fast cars for people who don’t actually like cars. You couldn’t throw a brunch tofu scramble in coastal cities without hitting someone talking about how their Model 3 was saving the planet.

Now? Not so much.

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The simple version: Tesla is toast. Not because EVs failed—they didn’t. But because the world finally caught up. Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, Rivian… they all started building real electric cars. Ones that don’t need a keynote speech to justify their existence. Ones that aren’t glued together with marketing slogans and hope.

Meanwhile, Tesla is… reorganizing. Again. Still no new models—unless you count the Cybertruck, a stainless steel joke with body panels stuck on like a shop class project. The original founders—the ones who actually had a vision—are long gone. What’s left is Elon, running Tesla the way he runs Twitter: by lighting it on fire and claiming the fire department is woke.

Hyundai and Kia are cranking out the Ioniq 5, EV6, and more—actual cars that you can drive, charge, afford, and maybe even fix. Toyota, after years of playing it safe, is now betting big on solid-state batteries. Mazda’s easing in with smart plug-in hybrids. Even the Chinese are in on the game—BYD, XPeng, NIO—churning out EVs faster than we can pronounce them.

And then there’s Rivian. No drama. No circus. Just a truck that works. The R1T and R1S hit the sweet spot for the people Tesla used to attract: outdoorsy, left-leaning, smart enough to want torque but not an ideological meltdown every time the CEO opens his mouth. Musk used to sell to liberals. Now he trolls them. That’s not a great way to sell cars, or keep stockholders.

Tesla’s doing what companies do when they run out of ideas: cutting features, slashing prices, laying off teams, and hoping nobody notices they haven’t actually made anything new in years.

Other companies are building. Tesla is broadcasting. There’s a difference.

You don’t win this game by being first. You win by showing up with the right car, at the right price, for people who still care. That used to be Tesla. Now it’s everyone else.

The future is electric. But Tesla may not be invited.

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