Listen and subscribe to Opening Bid Unfiltered on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
It was a ho-hum first day as Tesla’s (TSLA) president for Jon McNeill.
“I walked into that [factory door] entrance. I got my name badge. I stood in the line with a lot of other factory workers who were starting that day. And we all started together and walked through that door,” McNeill told me in a new episode of Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast (video above; listen in below).
Now a board member at General Motors (GM) and Lululemon (LULU), McNeill served as a president at Tesla from 2015 to 2018. During that time, revenue at the electric vehicle maker grew from $2 billion to $20 billion.
In his new book “The Algorithm,” McNeill breaks down what made Tesla so successful, from its processes to how billionaire CEO Elon Musk thinks.
“I think what Elon constantly does is he looks at what is the existential threat to the business right now,” McNeill said.
For Tesla, it means “you have to have autonomous cars because nobody’s going to choose a car that doesn’t become a chauffeur if they have a choice. And the second is you’ve got to be a low-cost manufacturer. And the proxy for that is robotics … And so [Musk] focuses just on those two things,” McNeill said.
Tesla’s stock could use a new jolt of Musk magic. The stock is down 23% this year, making it the worst-performing member of the “Magnificent Seven.”
Its poor performance reflects several factors.
Tesla delivered 358,023 vehicles in the first quarter, missing analyst estimates of 366,000 to 370,000 units. Although this represents a 6.3% increase year over year, the growth came from a depressed baseline, and the absolute numbers showed a significant sequential decline from the record-breaking fourth quarter of last year.
The expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit at the end of last year dealt a major blow to US demand. Additionally, persistent high interest rates have made vehicle financing more expensive for the average buyer.
Meanwhile, Tesla is facing brutal pressure from Chinese electric vehicle rivals like BYD (BYDDY), as well as legacy automakers such as Mercedes-Benz (MBG.DE), General Motors, and Ford (F). They have continued to forge ahead with EV production, albeit at a slower pace.
To keep Tesla bulls engaged, Musk is promising 2026 will be a big year for new products.
Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi (aka Cybercab), a vehicle designed without a steering wheel or pedals, is slated to begin initial production this month. It will be at the center of Tesla’s new autonomous ridesharing network.
