Harley Davidson is a very successful example of a franchised dealership structure. He seems to have skipped that for some reason. Though I don't know enough about the company to know whether or not its a good case study, HD is very much a one of a kind company in many regards.
Rank hypocrisy from the man who got a half-billion dollar loan from the U.S. goverment (that he's paid it back is irrelevant) and continues to receive hundreds of millions a year in subsidies via carbon credits, tax credits, etc.
What's wrong with a half-billion dollar loan from the government to help out building a car company? Isn't that exactly the type of loans our government should be making - ones to companies who create high-paying jobs, become successful and then repay their loans early?
I believe Elon said Tesla will be profitable next quarter excluding carbon tax credits which is the only existing subsidy they get as a corporation. As for the buyers do you really think the $5-$7k credits the buyers get (at least in the U.S. based on the state they are in) are enough that if they were to stop getting those credits Tesla would stop selling all cars? I mean they aren't exactly selling cheap cars. What's $5-7k if you are already spending $70-90k? That's about a 10% discount.
It would only be rank hypocrisy if there were polls showing that people were significantly against lending the money and offering credits and subsidies to reduce dependency upon fossil fuels though right? (extending his main objection to "democracy" here). If you're really going to go after him much safer ground is to point out that people can be easily manipulated by the way a question is framed to give you the answer you want. For example, what if the survey said "Do you think it's fair that a newer entrant into the marketplace can put 1000's of people's jobs at risk by being allowed to have a different set of rules to the established market participants?" Shockingly that poll might come out at 86% against Tesla.
Harley Davidson is a very successful example of a franchised dealership structure. He seems to have skipped that for some reason. Though I don't know enough about the company to know whether or not its a good case study, HD is very much a one of a kind company in many regards.