Elon Musk Places Tesla Gross sales At Threat Once more With New Womb Crack

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As if the newest information about Tesla gross sales isn’t dangerous sufficient, right here comes Tesla CEO Elon Musk to throw extra gasoline on the dumpster fireplace — by evoking the gender hole, no much less. “When you have a womb, you’re a lady. In any other case, you aren’t,” the self-declared professional on human anatomy declared on his social media platform X over the weekend, sparking a firestorm of commentary all around the Intertubes. Good job reaching out to potential EV consumers among the many womb-having inhabitants, Elon….

Tesla Gross sales & The EV Gender Hole

The EV gross sales gender hole is a matter of concern for EV stakeholders general, not simply Tesla. In 2024, for instance, the market analysis agency Escalante discovered that the EV market is “largely male-dominated, with males making up 71% of homeowners and 74% of buyers and usually conducting extra exploratory analysis all through the buying course of.” That’s a pointy distinction with the proportion of girls within the general auto market. In a single broadly cited examine, girls account for almost all of automotive gross sales within the US, at 62% in direct gross sales.

Some proof signifies that EVs had been marketed as a girls’s automobile within the early 1900’s, as EV makers sought to carry onto their market share in opposition to rising competitors from gas-fueled vehicles. The explanations for the gender hole of as we speak are unclear, although private security and entry to residence charging stations have been recognized as two potential components, together with affordability. Some analysts additionally recommend that automakers must re-calibrate their EV gross sales pitch to suit the wants and needs of the female-oriented mainstream market, having already tapped out the primary wave of early adopters.

Both method, the gender winds have been blowing in opposition to EV gross sales within the twenty first century. Although, the image on Tesla gross sales is combined. In 2023, for instance, S&P ran the numbers and located that the Tesla Mannequin Y was outperforming different EVs on gross sales to girls.

That knowledge was compiled earlier than the total affect of Musk’s buy of Twitter started to emerge, earlier than the launch of the testosterone-fueled Cybertruck, and earlier than Musk took on the position of Chopper-in-Chief within the Trump administration and fired tens of 1000’s of federal workers. Of be aware, girls account for almost all of staff in a number of federal businesses focused for mass discount.

The agency Hedges & Firm is amongst these observing that Tesla gross sales presently monitor the overall state of the EV gender hole. “Total, Tesla homeowners skew 74% male,” the agency famous in its most up-to-date replace.

How To Repair The EV Gender Hole — Not

If Tesla ever had an edge on gross sales to girls, that has evaporated, and Musk has carried out little if something to cease the bleeding. His forays into different enterprise ventures haven’t been notably useful in that regard. In 2024, for instance, Taylor Swift’s legion of followers mobilized to report offensive deepfake photos of the high-profile pop star on Musk’s X social media platform (previously Twitter), and final summer season, Musk’s Grok chatbot was noticed ordering up deepfake photos of Swift on command.

That brings us to the newest self-inflicted wound. As broadly reported, on December 13, the CEO of Tesla felt compelled to subject the next reminder on X: “When you have a womb, you’re a lady. In any other case, you aren’t.”

Someway that thought appears slightly incomplete. One obvious omission is a declaration of the age cut-off. In any case, numerous individuals have wombs. Womb-havers begin rising a womb of their very own even whereas nonetheless hooked up comfortably to the womb of one other womb-haver. Fetuses apart, infants and youngsters have wombs lengthy earlier than they obtain the stage generally acknowledged as womanhood, which is known to be one thing that occurs after a protracted interval of progress and growth.

When you have any ideas about that, drop a be aware within the remark thread. With regard to finishing a thought,  Mark Twain presents some steerage. “Garments make the person,” Twain as soon as famously quipped, a translation of the well-known Latin proverb garments make the person. Nonetheless, Twain being Twain, he was not glad till the thought was full. “Garments make the person. Bare individuals have little or no affect on society,” is the total quote.

Subsequent Steps For Tesla

As for the newest information about Tesla gross sales, CleanTechnica editor Zachary Shahan took be aware of the newest figures in the US EV market on December 12. As reported initially by Reuters (citing knowledge from Cox Automotive), the corporate’s year-on-year US gross sales for November slipped 23%, from 51,513 in November of 2024 to 39,800 in the identical month this 12 months.

“And that’s not the entire dangerous information,” Shahan added. “As everyone knows, Tesla launched decontented, cheaper variations of the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y with the intention to attempt to enhance gross sales. These automobiles dropped the low-end worth of these fashions by $5,000–5,500, however that doesn’t even make up for $7,500 tax credit score going away on October 1. So, unsurprisingly, these lower-quality variations of the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y haven’t stored gross sales afloat, not even shut,” he concluded.

The Cybertruck offers one other angle on the Tesla gross sales story. In November, Cox Automotive reported that Tesla offered simply 5,385 Cypertrucks in Q3 2025, a year-on-year decline of just about 63% in comparison with the 14,416 quantity for Q3 2024. As famous by CleanTechnica amongst many others, not too way back, Musk forecasted 150,000 Cybertruck gross sales per 12 months.

A turnaround for the Cybertruck is nowhere in sight, notably given the obstacles confronted by the EV market general. On prime of Tesla’s ongoing troubles, in July, the Republican-controlled Congress handed a Trump-approved tax invoice that took an axe to the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score as of September 30. That sparked an EV shopping for spree as drivers rushed to order their vehicles earlier than the deadline, adopted by a deep, solely predictable industry-wide droop within the two months since then.

In response, US automakers have pulled again on their near-term EV plans, although the long-term outlook stays optimistic. With the notable exception of Tesla, EV gross sales have continued to extend in key markets world wide. It’s solely a matter of time earlier than the US knuckles underneath the stress.

That doesn’t essentially imply a rising tide will carry the Tesla gross sales boat, too. Ford and GM are already laying plans to concentrate on EV affordability, undercutting Tesla’s prospects for a gross sales revival. The Cybertruck, specifically, will probably be dealing with stiff competitors from legacy automakers in addition to newcomers TELO Truckthe Jeff Bezos enterprise Slate Autoand Scout Motorsa department of Volkswagen Group.

Photograph by Kyle Area | CleanTechnica archive.