Tesla has turned to using ‘edgy’ social media marketing amid a brand damage crisis caused by CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla famously didn’t use advertising until it started dabbling in it in 2023—shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter, a platform that relies on advertising.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Tesla to start running ads on Twitter amid an exodus of advertisers on the controversial platform that rebranded to ‘X’.
Despite advertising for the first time, Tesla remains timid on that front and still primarily relies on other marketing strategies, like social media content and word of mouth.
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Historically, Tesla’s social media presence has been quite tame. The automaker wouldn’t post much besides important releases and the occasional marketing material.
That changed in 2023 after Musk acquired the platform. He launched a new account for businesses that cost $1,000 monthly for the main account and then $50 per month for every other “affiliated account.” Tesla quickly created 13 different affiliated accounts for the platforms.
The number has since risen to 37 accounts since our original report. Many of these accounts are barely used today, but a few have become quite active.
They have ramped up their posts lately as Tesla is experiencing severe demand problems amid a brand crisis. Tesla is under boycotts from left-leaning people in the US over the belief that Musk is using Tesla as his own personal piggy bank to finance the rise of fascism in the US.
During that time, Tesla has ramped up its use of social media, primarily X, and it has turned to a growing trend amongst brands on social media: trying to be funny and edgy.
Companies like Wendy’s, Ryan Air, and others have popularized this marketing strategy by responding to social media content with funny replies that some may find offensive.
Tesla is giving it a try over the last few days, but it is falling flat as the sense of humour appears to be to the same level as its CEO’s; a stunted 14-year-old’s humor:
Here Tesla is making fun of the fact that Cybertruck still doesn’t have the “actual smart summon” feature, which some are calling ‘ASS’.
After launching a new Diamond Black color last week, Tesla used this meme, which fell flat:
This one is a bit better. It’s a play of Time’s new front page news about bringing back the dire wolf. Tesla says that it brought back the turn signal stalk:
However, the turn signal stalk was never extinct. Every car except Teslas still has one, and even Tesla’s Model Y still has it. They just didn’t remove it with the redesign.
Going really edgy, Tesla’s Optimus account even posted on adult content on X:
Will this new marketing effort pay off or will Tesla need more to counter the brand damage?
Electrek’s Take
I think we all know the answer to that question. Look, humor is humor. There are different senses of humor out there, and people like different things.
Some people may like these, but personally, I think they all fall flat.
Furthermore and more importantly, Tesla is almost entirely focusing its social media effort on X, which ranks 12th in the world for monthly users in social media.
Tesla is just preaching to the choir there. If it wants to have a real impact, it will have to support Musk’s competitors and go to Instagram, TikTok, etc.
It’s just the latest example of Musk stunting Tesla’s growth due to his extracurricular activities.
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A team of white hat European hackers using their brains, keyboards, and a couple of bits and baubles from eBay managed to take control of a 2020 Nissan LEAF and violate just about every privacy and safety regulation in the process.
The best part: they recorded the whole thing.
Budapest-based cybersecurity experts PCAutomotive were able to exploit a number of vulnerabilities in a 2020 Nissan LEAF that enabled the white hat team to geolocate and track the car, record the texts and conversations happening inside the car, playing media back through the car’s speakers, and even (this is the genuinely terrifying dangerous part) turning the steering wheel while the car was moving. (!?)
Maybe the scariest part of this hack, however, is how seemingly easy it was to pull off by starting with a “test bench simulator” built using parts from eBay and exploiting a vulnerability in the LEAF’s DNS C2 channel and Bluetooth protocol.
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The PCAutomotive team gave a hugely detailed 118-page presentation of their exploit at black hat Asia 2025, which we’ve included at the bottom of this post, in case the original link goes dead. If you’re into that sort of thing, the fun stuff starts around page 27. And, if you’re not, just know that all the vulnerabilities were disclosed to Nissan and its suppliers between 02AUG2023 and 12SEP2024 (p. 116/118), and the “attack” itself can be seen in the video below that. Enjoy!
Summary of vulnerabilities
CVE-2025-32056 – Anti-Theft bypass
CVE-2025-32057 – app_redbend: MiTM attack
CVE-2025-32058 – v850: Stack Overflow in CBR processing
CVE-2025-32059 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [0]
CVE-2025-32060 – Absence of a kernel module signature verification
CVE-2025-32061 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [1]
CVE-2025-32062 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [2]
PCA_NISSAN_009 – Improper traffic filtration between CAN buses
CVE-2025-32063 – Persistence for Wi-Fi network
PCA_NISSAN_012 – Persistence through CVE-2017-7932 in HAB of i.MX 6
Unfortunately, this is also one of those posts that some of the more clueless anti-EV hysterics will point to and say, “See!? EVs can get hacked!” But the reality is that virtually any car with electric power steering (EPS), electronic throttle controls, brake-by-wire, etc. can be hacked in a similar way. But, while steering a target’s car into an oncoming semi might be a great way to pull off a covert CIA assassination, the more worrying issue here is the breach of privacy and recording – unless you want to spend some time in El Salvadoran prison, I guess.
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A major new EV battery factory is being built in Sunderland, bringing 1,000 new jobs with it. AESC, Nissan’s battery partner, is behind the £1 billion ($1.33 billion) plant, which will boost the UK’s EV battery production by six times, enough to power 100,000 electric cars annually.
The 12 GWh capacity plant, AESC’s second battery plant in Sunderland, will be powered by 100% net-zero carbon energy. That big jump in capacity helps position Britain as a global player in EV manufacturing while pushing forward the country’s net-zero goals.
The investment is getting a serious financial lift from the British government. Through a combination of support from the National Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance, the project is unlocking £680 million in financing from major banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, SMBC Group, Societe Generale, and BBVA, that covers the construction and operation of the battery factory. Another £320 million is coming from private investment and fresh equity from AESC. On top of all that, the government’s Automotive Transformation Fund is pitching in with £150 million in grant funding.
This deal follows closely on the heels of the new UK-US trade agreement announced a day earlier, which cuts car export tariffs from 27.5% down to 10% for up to 100,000 UK-made vehicles – nearly the total number exported last year. That move could save car companies hundreds of millions of pounds and help protect good-paying jobs in manufacturing hubs like Sunderland.
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves visited AESC in Sunderland, where she met with staff and local leaders to discuss what this means for the Northeast and the British car industry.
“This investment follows hot on the heels of yesterday’s landmark economic deal with the US, which will save thousands of jobs in the industry,” Reeves said.
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It’s about the future of their jobs. Ford workers at two plants in western Germany are set to go on strike on Wednesday, their works council chief said on Monday.
Ford is facing a worker strike in Germany
In November, Ford announced it would cut around 4,000 jobs in Europe by 2027 as part of a restructuring, primarily in Germany and the UK. That’s still about 14% of its European workforce.
The American automaker said the move comes after it has incurred “significant losses” in recent years and a “highly disruptive market” with new EVs quickly gaining market share.
Ford blamed slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and a weak economic situation. It also plans to slow production at its Cologne EV plant, where the electric Explorer and Capri are built.
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Last week, IG Metall members voted in favor of “industrial action” with 93.5% of votes in favor of a strike. “Ford must act now—otherwise, we will go through with it,” said Kerstin D. Klein, Chief Representative of IG Metall Cologne-Leverkusen.
Ford Explorer EV production in Cologne (Source: Ford)
Ford is facing an influx of new competition, including Chinese EV makers like BYD. BYD’s overseas sales are surging with a fifth straight month of growth in April.
BYD even outsold Tesla in Germany last month, with 1,566 vehicles registered. In comparison, Tesla had just 855, and Ford saw 9,534 registrations.
Ford’s electric vehicles in Europe from left to right: Puma Gen-E, Explorer, Capri, and Mustang Mach-E (Source: Ford)
On top of this, Ford, like most of the industry, is preparing for more disruption with Trump’s auto tariffs. After releasing Q1 earnings last week, Ford warned that the tariffs could cost up to $2.5 billion this year.
During Ford’s earnings call, CFO Sherry House said that recent EV launches in Europe, including the Explorer, Capri, and Puma Gen-E, helped more than double Model e’s wholesale volume in Q1.
After early success in the US, Ford also launched its “Power Promise” promotion in Europe, offering EV buyers a free home charger and several other perks.