SAN FRANCISCO: Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said yesteerday that he will stay at the electric car company as long as he is useful amid investor concerns that buying Twitter would distract him from his job at Tesla.
He also said China’s Covid-19 lockdown measures would not be “a significant issue in the coming weeks” at a time when its Shanghai factory is struggling to ramp up production following a suspension last month.
When asked about how long he expects to stay at Tesla, he said: “As long as I can be useful.”
He was speaking at the FT Future of the Car 2022 conference.
In late April, Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter for US$44 billion cash in a transaction that sparked concerns that the social media platform would divert Musk’s attention from Tesla, SpaceX and other companies.
He recently sold US$8.5 billion worth of his Tesla shares and plans to borrow against some Tesla stock to help finance the Twitter deal.
Musk is expected to become Twitter’s temporary CEO after closing the deal, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Musk tweeted in December that he was “thinking of” leaving his jobs and becoming an influencer full time, although it was not clear whether he was being serious about quitting his roles.
He also said last July that he has tried “very hard not to be the CEO of Tesla, but I have to or frankly Tesla is going to die”.
Musk also said he does not see “a ton of merit in combining” Tesla, SpaceX and other affiliates under one umbrella, saying they have different objectives and shareholder bases.
Reuters reported that Tesla operated its Shanghai plant well below capacity early this week, after reopening it in late April after a 22-day closure.
“I had conversations with the Chinese government in recent days and it’s clear that the lockdowns are being lifted rapidly,” he said.
The automaker’s sales in China had already slumped by 98% in April from a month earlier, data released by the China Passenger Car Association showed, underscoring the hit from China’s hard Covid-19 lockdowns.
He said Tesla does not expect to open additional factories in China in the near future, adding that it will expand its Shanghai factory.
He said China is a significant market, but expected China to account for about 30% of Tesla’s total market in the long term.
Asked if China would interfere and block Tesla’s operations in the country due to Musk owning Twitter, the billionaire said, “I’ve seen no indication of that effect.”
He also said Tesla is open to buying a mining company if necessary.
He expected constraints in lithium production in about three years, adding that raw materials are one of the problems to reaching its goal of selling 20 million vehicles by 2030, from fewer than 1 million last year.
He said that target is “an aspiration” not a “promise”.
Musk believes the biggest constraints to raw materials is equipment necessary to convert raw materials like lithium, nickel and iron into battery-grade materials, adding that Tesla is working with suppliers to address the issue.
Musk also said that as owner of Twitter he would lift the ban on Donald Trump, contending that kicking the former US president off the platform “alienated a large part of the country”.
Musk’s endorsement of a Trump return to the global messaging platform triggered fears among activists that Musk would “open the floodgates of hate”.
“I would reverse the permanent ban,“ the billionaire said at the conference, noting that he doesn’t own Twitter yet, so “this is not like a thing that will definitely happen”.
Trump has stated publicly that he would not come back to Twitter if permitted, opting instead to stick with his own social network, which has failed to gain traction.
Trump was booted from Twitter and other online platforms after supporters fired up by his tweets and speech alleging election fraud attacked the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021 in a deadly bid to stop Joe Biden from being certified as the victor in the US presidential election.
“I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country, and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk said.
Musk maintained that permanent bans undermine trust in Twitter as an online town square where everyone can be heard. – Reuters, AFP
