Elon Musk is drawing a lot of flak for canceling a disgruntled customer’s Tesla order — but he’s not backing down.
With a tweet overnight, the Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, -5.09% CEO signaled contempt for all of the attention paid to his “No Soup for You”-style move. He suggested it’s just a case of a business deciding not to serve a crank:
The would-be customer — Silicon Valley venture capitalist Stewart Alsop — said in a Medium post titled “Banned by Tesla!” that Musk had nixed his order for a Model X.
That post this week followed an earlier one in September, in which the VC argued Musk should be ashamed of himself for failing to apologize over glitches at a Model X launch event. Alsop complained that Tesla wasted its customers’ time at the event. His gripes? It started late, there were too many people there, and the food wasn’t good enough.
British newspaper The Guardian has accused Musk of being “unbelievably petty” in his response to Alsop’s moaning. Is it a teachable moment? The possible lesson here is you shouldn’t criticize Musk or make him mad if you want to buy a Tesla, as The New York Post and The Silicon Valley Business Journal put it.
Alsop still seems to be a big fan of Tesla’s electric vehicles — even though it looks like he might have to use a go-between to get one, rather than turn up with the check himself.
“I am mostly sorry not to be able to participate in the automobile revolution that Tesla started,” the outspoken investor wrote in his post from this week. “You have innovated on user experience, battery technology, autonomous operation, and virtually every other aspect of the automobile experience today.”
Alsop’s not the only one throwing shade on Tesla right now. Analysts at Berenberg started coverage of the electric car maker with a negative take, rating Tesla’s stock as a sell.
In a note dated Tuesday, the analysts warned the car industry’s “sleepy giants are waking up,” and Tesla’s competitive advantages “may not be quite as large or long-lasting as many assume.” They have a 12-month price target of $165 for the stock, which closed around $183 on Tuesday.