In 2020, Tesla became the first mass-market automaker to abolish its press relations department. Now, prominent automaker supporters, especially investors, are urging the brand to bring it back.
Following confusion over CEO Elon Musk’s tweets last week and a joint report on Tesla’s workforce, Tesla has been called upon to create a section on media requests. The result of the confusion was that Tesla stock fell significantly.
Now Gary Black, managing partner of The Future Fund and a prominent Tesla supporter, has taken to Twitter to speak in support of the return of an official press relations department, as first noticed by Automotive News.
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There are journalists (OwDowJonesAl) Who are neutral towards the positive TSLA And the truth will come out to defeat their peers. The invisible hand of competition in the media will make the truth easier. pic.twitter.com/bP6xL6GeuQ
– Gary Black (ary garyblack00) June 5, 2022
“I have said this many times about refusing to invest in TSLA PR,” Black wrote. “If you have never been to a game, you can’t complain about losing.”
The tweets are specifically related to an email seen by Reuters saying that Musk had “extremely bad feelings” about the economy and that Tesla would have to cut its paid workforce by 10 percent. Without a department to respond to media requests for information, reports spread widely and the company’s share price plummeted sharply on Friday.
Although Musk later made it clear on Twitter that the company’s paid workforce could remain stagnant for the foreseeable future and that the hourly workforce was likely to increase in size, reports have already affected the company’s stock and made it seem indecisive.
And this is not the first time that a news cycle that affected share prices has been resolved by a PR department. In April, a counterfeit press release was sent out from Lithium Corporation, a lithium mining company, whose stock prices had risen and then plummeted. Its PR department was able to correct the story but Tesla was prolonged without getting rid of the confusion.
Finally, Tesla shares fell nearly 10 percent on Friday and investors may ask a public relations department to help control volatility.
The total headcount will increase, but the payroll should be fairly flat
– Elon Musk (lonelonmusk) June 4, 2022
