43 Comments When Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly denied a report that Tesla had canceled its work on the $25,000 “Model 2” despite the project ending weeks prior, Tesla executives were “alarmed” by Musk’s public lie, according to a new report by Reuters. In April 2024, Reuters reported that the long-awaited $25,000 Tesla, nicknamed “Model 2” by the public, had been canceled. Immediately after the report, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded, stating “Reuters is lying (again).” However, when he made this statement, Musk knew that the report was correct, and that he had cancelled the project weeks earlier. Advertisement - scroll for more content This new information comes from a report by Reuters today, citing company documents and the standard “people familiar with the matter.” The public denial caused confusion among Tesla executives, some of whom wondered if the project was back on, or who were concerned that customers may delay purchases waiting for a product that they and Musk knew would never come. It also concerned executives due to an agreement Musk made with the SEC which required a lawyer to oversee his Tesla-related tweeting activities, after he had previously been caught misleading investors into thinking he had secured funding to take Tesla private. Musk’s lie about the $25k Model 2 project stopped a decline in TSLA stock, which had slid by 6% so far that day, and the stock recovered partially by the end of the day. Given the market-moving nature of the statement, and the subject matter of being about Tesla’s future plans, it was thought that this would be another clear violation of Musk’s settlement with the SEC. Musk’s history attacking truth Musk has a long history of taking umbrage with the press and government regulators, and getting in public fights with people for the smallest of slights. These attacks are often immature, as in the examples of his lewd statements about the SEC, or an unnecessary attack on a diver during a rescue operation. Reuters has been one of his main targets, but he has generally shown disdain for the media, and this attitude isn’t new. In 2018, he floated the idea of creating a website to rank “truth” in media, proposing the name “Pravduh.” The idea came after a series of negative reports about Tesla, making it clear that the effort was less about truth, and more about Musk feeling slighted about recent coverage. In a similar vein to his attacks on Reuters, he and the Tesla board recently denied a WSJ report that they were seeking a replacement for Musk as CEO. Musk responded personally, stating that it was an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS” for WSJ to publish a “DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial,” even though WSJ reached out to Tesla and was given no comment beforehand. One of the reasons WSJ couldn’t get comment beforehand is because Tesla dissolved its PR department years ago. Companies keep PR departments so that press can have a clear a consistent idea of a company’s position on the matter, and so that journalists can reach out to the company for comment beforehand. Musk’s anger at WSJ for not including a denial from a department that he himself dissolved suggests that perhaps he relishes the opportunity to strike out against the media, as his own actions have been responsible for the lack of communication between Tesla and the media. Top comment by Beario