Can Tesla survive Elon Musk?

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The backlash against Elon Musk is growing – and Tesla is paying the price. Sales have plunged, showrooms have become hotbeds for protest, and owners are finding their cars defaced with swastikas. Yet the CEO continues to entangle himself in populist politics worldwide and seems more focused on working for the US government than running his own companies. Today on The Bunker, Adam Shaw is joined by journalist Edward Luce, US national editor and columnist for the Financial Times, to explore whether the revolutionary electric vehicle company can withstand the weight of its CEO’s reputation. • We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit. https://www.patreon.com/c/bunkercast Written and presented by Adam Shaw. Produced by Liam Tait. Audio editors: Tom Taylor. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you enjoying our podcasts, but would prefer to listen without adverts getting in the way?
0:05.7	Sign up to back us on Patreon for a smooth, ad-free listening experience.
0:10.8	Follow the link in the show notes to find out how.
0:27.6	Hello and welcome to The Bunker, your daily dose of news and political explainers.
0:35.4	I'm Adam Shaw. I've been the business presenter of programs such as Panorama on BBC One, Radio 4's Today program,
0:41.0	ITV's main investigative series tonight, and I am thrilled to be joining you in the bunker where we will be looking at the biggest personalities and stories in the
0:47.4	world of commerce and business. And so to today's program, the richest person on the planet, an advisor to the US president,
0:57.0	the man who improbably says he can turn Mars into a new Earth. He is taking a chainsaw to the US
1:04.1	government, sometimes quite literally. His Tesla company is not just the most valuable car
1:10.5	manufacturer in the world, it was bigger than
1:13.9	the combined value of the next 16 most valuable car companies.
1:20.1	You may love him or loathe him, but it is hard to deny that he is the most powerful and
1:26.9	influential entrepreneur in the world. He is, of course,
1:31.3	Elon Musk, and he is the man, the myth, the power we are putting under the microscope today.
1:37.4	And to help do that, deep dive is a man who has been following his career and influence on the
1:44.0	world of politics and business.
1:45.8	Edward Luce, the US national editor and economist for the Financial Times, who joins us from
1:52.5	Washington.
1:53.8	Hi, Edward.
1:54.8	Hi, great to be with you.
1:56.3	Well, it's great you join us.
1:57.5	Look, I suppose the multi-billion dollar question, the big one, we might as well start with, how influential is Musk in your view and is here a force for good or bad?
	...

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