Ross Gerber, a longtime Tesla investor, was neither impressed nor surprised by the more affordable models.
“It’s another version of the Model Y, and they already launched the best Model Y they’ve ever built,” Gerber told Business Insider. “So the problem is, people are extremely price sensitive. If you have two or three or four models of the same car, which one do you think most people pick? The cheapest one.”
“So they will now perceive the brand differently because their experience with it will be different. It now becomes more like Toyota than Mercedes, when Tesla used to be considered a luxury,” Gerber added.
“Literally called it,” he said in an earlier post on X. “$7500 less good only to eat sales from higher priced models. Why? Because the tax credit got pilfered by the ceo himself.”
Gerber, CEO and president of Gerber-Kawasaki Wealth, has been critical of Tesla and Musk, with his firm dumping Tesla stock earlier this year. Gerber said in July that the expiring EV tax credit was a problem for Tesla and predicted the company’s stock would decline further, although its share price has since risen.
As of now, Gerber said he still manages around $80 million worth of Tesla shares.
