Unbeknownst to much of the public, Elon Musk did not actually start Tesla. Indeed, Musk was actually the company’s 4th CEO when he initially joined the company way back in 2008. While Musk can be credited with substantially transforming the firm and its offerings, its original co-founders, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, launched Tesla in 2003.
Musk and those original executives have had their tussles over the years. In fact, tensions between Musk and Eberhard led to a 2009 lawsuit and settlement. That settlement found that Musk could call himself a co-founder of the company, alongside Eberhard, Tarpenning, JB Straubel, and Ian Wright.
As first spotted by Electrek, during a recent interview with EV YouTuber Kim Java, Eberhard expressed discontent with the direction of the company and referred to Musk’s newest vehicular creation in a less-than-flattering fashion. “I am actually disappointed that Tesla canceled its low-end car program because that’s what the world needs—not a truck that looks like a dumpster,” Eberhard said.
In addition to insulting Musk’s floundering Cybertruck, Eberhard seems to have been referring to Tesla’s previously espoused goal of launching a more affordable line of cars. Most of the new vehicles from the company cost in the $40k range, although in the past, both Musk and Tesla announced a “planned $25,000 EV would be an all-new model, designed and built from scratch on a new platform,” Reuters previously reported. Musk had characterized the program “as a testbed for groundbreaking manufacturing innovations that would lower the cost of electric vehicles,” the outlet writes.
However, last summer, Reuters reported that Musk had “killed” the $25,000 EV. Musk later denied the report and accused the outlet of “lying.” Reuters subsequently reported that Musk “had, in fact, canceled the low-cost vehicle, which many investors called the Model 2, and pivoted Tesla to focus on self-driving robotaxis.” Musk’s claims that Reuters was lying reportedly confused “some senior managers [at the company],” spurring them to ask him whether “he’d changed his mind. Musk rejected their concerns and said the project was still dead,” Reuters said.
However, despite this past drama, Tesla still claims to be moving ahead with an affordable car program. During the company’s earnings call about a week ago, Tesla appeared to provide an update on this program. A shareholder deck that was circulated seemed to imply that this program will see progress later this year. Teslerati notes that the deck said: “We continue to expand our vehicle offering, including first builds of a more affordable model in June, with volume production planned for the second half of 2025.” The outlet notes that the “pricing of the affordable models still remains a mystery.”
Not all of Eberhard’s recent comments about Musk were negative. He also complimented the tech billionaire for having “transformed Tesla into one of the most valuable companies in the world.” He added: “That’s good. I’m glad to see my baby surviving.” He also said he felt SpaceX (Musk’s rocket company) was a “remarkably good company” while noting that he felt Musk doesn’t “do an adequate job of giving credit to the people who made that possible.” He credited Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, with keeping “the rockets flying.”
Gizmodo reached out to Tesla and Musk for comment.
Eberhard is, of course, not the first person to insult Musk’s bulky contraption. Since its launch, the Cybertruck has been referred to by a variety of colorful monikers, including—just to pick a few off the internet—”truly a piece of shit,” “the stupidest vehicle ever designed” and “literally the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” among many others. Indeed, hatred for the truck and its owners has reached such great heights that owners recently launched a Facebook support group designed to help them cope with all of the world’s hostilities.
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