Twitter votes for Elon Musk to step down after pressure from Tesla investors
Elon Musk has put his role as head of Twitter up to a vote, and the people have spoken: He should step down as the leader of the social media platform he owns.
It comes after pressure from Tesla investors, who feel abandoned.
As we reported over the last few weeks, Tesla investors have become more vocal about their dissatisfaction with their CEO, Elon Musk, spending a lot of time on Twitter and selling Tesla shares to support the company.
On top of it, many see him becoming more political through his own use and leadership of Twitter and believe that the trend is affecting Tesla as many car buyers have difficulties separating Tesla and Musk.
Tesla investors have been calling for Musk to step down from the role of CEO at Twitter and refocus on Tesla, but Musk has mostly ignored their pleas.
It reached a level where investors were starting to now call for Musk to step down from his role as CEO of Tesla instead.
Leo KoGuan, the third largest Tesla investor, told Electrek last week:
The point of no return, Elon has moved on permanently I think from Elon the engineer par-excellent to Elon the supreme political king-maker. Based on this assumption, only based on this assumption, Elon should find his own successor approved by independent BOD members. Of course, BOD should set up an independent search committee to find a new CEO.
Following a few more mistakes over the last few days, like suspending journalists and banning sharing links to other social media, both moves that were later at least partly reverted, Musk’s own leadership of Twitter has come into question as well.
Stuck between the two, Musk took to Twitter yesterday with a poll to ask whether he should remain the head of Twitter:
The CEO says that he will abide by the result of the poll – something he has done in the past over other matters.
Over 17 million people voted and a somewhat strong majority (57%) voted in favor of him stepping down. That’s impressive considering Musk has a block list preventing people he dislikes from seeing or voting in this poll and the poll went out to his own followers.
Musk doesn’t appear to have a clear successor to lead Twitter – though he tweeted with Lex Fridman, an engineer and podcaster, about potentially taking over.
Tesla’s stock (TSLA) was up by as much as 5% in pre-market trading following news of the poll.
Electrek’s Take
Let’s see what he means by “stepping down” here. He still owns the company and it is private. As far as we know, there’s no board in place yet nor a clear structure to find a replacement.
Therefore, I don’t think finding someone else to lead the day-to-day will resolve all the issues for Tesla shareholders, but it would certainly free up more time for the CEO to spend on the company.
However, the loss in credibility that he suffered through those Twitter antics is likely to have a lasting impact on both Tesla and Twitter.
As for the latter, if Musk truly wants it to be a platform for free speech that serves the center rather than the extremes of both political sides, Twitter is probably better off with someone more apolitical than himself.
Fridman could potentially be a good option in my opinion. He does seem less political and more level-headed than Musk.
Either way, I hope that this means I can soon stop reporting on this Twitter nonsense and focus on more fun stuff again.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
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In a move that helps the brand duck protectionist anti-Chinese tariffs, Volvo Cars has switched production of its award-winning EX30 models destined for US roads from its Zhangjiakou plant in China to the Ghent facility in Belgium.
Volvo EX30 production began in the company’s Ghent factory back in April, but those first cars were earmarked for the Swedish domestic and European export markets, but that move wasn’t primarily motivated by avoiding tariffs. As Electrive reports, the company seemed happy enough to continue importing its small electric crossover from China and accepting the new 28.8% tariffs (up from 10%), but the wait times to get the vehicles shipped in from China was imply too long.
In 2024, Swedish and German buyers had to wait up to eight months for their EX30 in some cases, according to Volvo Cars’ European boss, Arek Nowinski, per Automotive News. Once production in Ghent is fully up to speed, however, wait times should be cut to about 90 days. Those wait times, and the price hike associated with the tariffs, have hurt sales of the originally Chinese-made Volvo EV. In 2024, for example, the EX30 ranked third in European EV sales, but slipped out of the top 10 first half of 2025.
“The car is now being built in Europe, which means faster delivery times,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson to Automotive News. “We should return to the sales and market share figures for the EX30 that we had before the introduction of tariffs.”
Coming to Staying in America
The EX30’s switch to Ghent is good news for American fans of the compact, lickety-quick Volvo EV. Now that it’s no longer exclusively made in China, Volvo has decided to give it a stay of execution as it revamps its US product lineup to better align with market trends (read: SUVs) and the changing political landscape (read: tariffs and inflation).
The reason? The Made in China version of the EX30 would virtually unsellable in the US due to the implementation of 147% tariffs on vehicles imported from China. Vehicles imported from Europe, meanwhile, carry just 15% tariffs, keeping the EX30 in a competitive price bracket.
Expect to see both Ghent and South Carolina play an increasingly large role in Volvo’s US product mix – at least for the next three-odd years.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Cars, Automotive News, via Electrive.
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New filings have revealed that BYD is about to release a ridiculous 3,000 hp electric supercar: the Yangwang U9 Track Edition.
BYD already shocked the world when it launched the Yangwang U9, its first all-electric supercar.
It featured four advanced electric motors with a combined power of nearly 1,300 horsepower. The U9 can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in just 2.36 seconds.
With a motor at each wheel and a highly advanced electric-air suspension, the U9 can turn on itself and even jump over potholes.
But that was only the beginning.
Based on a new filing with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), BYD is preparing to launch a new ‘Track Edition’ of the Yangwang U9:
When an automaker releases a “track” version of a car, it typically primarily features body changes for better aerodynamic performance, adding downforce, and it will also often feature bigger brakes.
The Yangwang U9 ‘Track Edition’ appears to feature all that… and much more.
The filing reveals that BYD updated the motors at each wheel to a new 555 kW motor. That’s a higher-performing motor than in most performance electric vehicles. The U9 Track Edition has four of them for a total of 2,220 kW (3,019 hp).
I would have thought that this was a typo if it wasn’t for the insane electric vehicles coming out of China these days.
Here are a few pictures from the MIIT filing:
There are a lot of performance specs that are not included in the MIIT filing. Therefore, it will be interesting to see when the vehicle is fully unveiled and BYD reveals what kind of performance it can achieve with 3,000 hp packed in 4 electric motors.
Here are a few other features mentioned in the filing:
Standard features:
- 20-inch wheels with 325/35 R20 tyres
- Carbon-fibre roof
- Large fixed carbon-fibre rear wing
- Rear diffuser with adjustable blades for aerodynamic optimisation
Optional aerodynamic parts:
- Standard or enhanced carbon-fibre front splitter
- Electric rear wing
Electrek’s Take
How are they going to keep that thing from flying away? Seriously.
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