"Have you noticed that recently, Tesla's popularity hasn't improved much?"

"It seems to be a bit weak."

"Before, Tesla was on the trending topics every day. Whenever Musk said something trivial, the media would scramble to report it. Now, everyone seems to have shifted their attention to companies like Xiaomi, Huawei, and BYD."

"The high-profile moment of this American new energy vehicle company is gradually coming to an end."

This is not a fabrication. The opening dialogue of this article took place during a company topic selection meeting with colleagues last Friday. The reason is that after the conclusion of Tesla's 2024 shareholder meeting, it didn't seem to spark much discussion in the industry, especially compared to the heated discussions of previous sessions.

And this time, the only thing that left a deep impression was the success of "the world's richest man" Musk's salary negotiation. He successfully obtained an astronomical compensation of over 400 billion yuan and moved Tesla's registered address from Delaware to Texas.

In fact, looking back at the development logic of the event itself, it is very simple and clear.

Back in 2018, Tesla approved a 10-year long-term compensation plan for this "leader," including 12 sets of market capitalization and business objectives.

If Musk can achieve all of them, he will receive 12% of the company's stock options as a reward, which had a total value of about 56 billion US dollars at that time. Of course, if Musk fails to meet the targets, he will end up with nothing, working for Tesla for free.

Undoubtedly, the profits and risks of this "bet" are both enormous.

Take one point as an example. The compensation plan requires Tesla's market capitalization to exceed 650 billion US dollars, while in 2018, it was only less than 60 billion US dollars, a difference of more than 10 times.

Coupled with more "extreme" numbers, it seems almost impossible to complete in the eyes of onlookers.

But no one expected that shortly after the compensation plan was announced, the "motivated" Musk embarked on an extremely focused and intense mode, leading Tesla to quickly enter a fast-growing trajectory.

With the launch of two groundbreaking mass-produced models, Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the implementation and production of the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla led the global rise of new energy vehicles.

Tesla, which dominates time, location, and people, has a market value of over trillions of dollars in 2021 and sold a total of 1.43 million new cars in 2022. Taking advantage of this, Musk has reached its peak and is almost surrounded and elevated to the altar.

Perhaps with these honors as endorsements, this "helmsman" firmly believes that getting a sky high salary is basically a certainty, and he gradually disperses his energy that was originally focused on Tesla.

After entering 2023, with the increasingly fierce competition in the global new energy market, more and more challengers are eyeing this American new energy vehicle company, and the comfortable days of making money are coming to an end.

Although Tesla's delivery volume is still expected to reach 1.8 million units based on phased results, it is undeniable that factors such as a decline in gross profit margin for individual vehicles, a decline in overall operational efficiency, and a weakening of competitiveness in key segments are all present.

In short, many stubborn diseases are clearly on the table, and dangerous signals are emerging one by one. Little did they know that by this year, even greater hidden dangers had completely erupted.

In the just past quarter, Tesla not only delivered far less than expected, but also saw a decline in several key data points in its financial report. The chain reaction triggered was that the company's market value continued to shrink and then shrink, and the external criticism of Musk became exceptionally fierce.

As early as January this year, "back stabbing" had already hit. A Delaware judge declared Musk's compensation plan invalid on the grounds of "unfairness to shareholders".

Regarding this, Musk firmly stated that if his demands were not met, he would spin off Tesla's artificial intelligence business into an independent company, and he may also resign from Tesla.

Faced with coercion, in April this year, the company's board of directors initiated a second voting resolution on its compensation plan and added a resolution to relocate its headquarters from Delaware to Texas. This operation helps Musk and Tesla escape the jurisdiction of Delaware courts.

To put it more bluntly, we will do our best to ensure sky high salaries.

Fortunately, after experiencing various twists and turns and twists, there was no reversal in the final result.

As mentioned earlier, everyone once again witnessed Musk's hand and foot dancing in the center of the stage, and his subtext was extremely similar: "Ten years of work has not been in vain, $56 billion has been received."

As for me personally, I would like to say more about the entire incident: "If you succeed in Musk, if you lose in Musk, at least so far, Tesla cannot do without his leadership. Of course, with the incentive of huge wealth, I also hope that he can refocus his attention on the company."

After all, the current situation of this American new energy vehicle company has reached a point where it cannot afford to lose.

And sometimes it's interesting to watch news together. In addition to the ups and downs of the series mentioned above, there have been media reports recently that Tesla's largest ever layoff announced in April, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, has achieved the latest phase of results.

According to relevant internal records, as of June 17th, Tesla's global workforce has decreased from over 140000 to 121000, including temporary workers. Simply put, in just two months, Musk cut off over 20000 employees with his knife, a magnitude close to 14%.

In addition, there are reports that according to the helmsman, the plan will provide stock options to outstanding employees and reward those who have made outstanding contributions to the company. In other words, while playing the role of Red Face, singing White Face.

So, another question arises: do you think the above operations are actually useful? Regarding the answer, objectively speaking, it is currently not possible to make overly optimistic judgments.

Because "human error" is just a driving force behind Tesla's quagmire, and many other dimensions of difficulties and challenges are waiting for Musk to overcome and overcome one by one. For example, how to reshape the leading type of products; For example, how to improve the inclusiveness of intelligent driving; For example, how to solve the precision of marketing

At this point, as the article draws to a close, the main point I want to mention is: "Whether acknowledged or not, the remaining months will be a crucial moment in determining Tesla's position in the global new energy market. Therefore, whether to continue to thrive or ultimately disappear from the crowd, success or failure depends on this one move."

There are also concerns that Tesla will experience negative cumulative sales growth this year. In other words, even the 1.8 million vehicles in 2023 are difficult to reach, and pessimistic sentiment is still spreading.

So, as an observer, what do you think?