Is Tesla wrong to not have a PR team?

Disclaimer: This article is an opinion piece written by the Transport Evolved team.

Tesla is unlike any other automaker in the world. Not only is it the company that kick started the electric car revolution by building its two-seat Roadster, a car that was everything that electric cars weren’t at the time, it is the first new automaker in more than one hundred years to become a profitable entity and survive the tumultuous waters of life as a startup.

It managed to light a fire under the butts of mainstream automakers who had initially scoffed at its promise of bringing desirable, fast, long-range electric cars to market. It’s disruptive. It has challenged the standard automotive auto-dealer business model. It has high brand loyalty among its customers. And it’s now the most valuable automaker in the world by market cap, despite making a fraction of the number of cars that legacy automakers do every year.

It’s for those reasons that, in many circles, we in the electric car world lean in to the habit of putting Tesla on a pedestal. And, as the person who led Tesla from its early days to the company it is today, Elon Musk is often put on an even bigger pedestal. 

Now, we know that when one questions someone on a pedestal, they’re bound to get a lot of kickback. So, that’s what we here are expecting because we’re going to explain why, in our opinion, Elon Musk is wrong about something. That something is specifically the notion that Tesla doesn’t need a PR department. 

While Tesla did have a PR department until sometime last year, it has existed for nearly a year without one, and arguably  even a few more years than that without a functional one.  In light of the recent Model S crashes and the ongoing problems at Tesla’s Gigaberlin, with a sprinkle of Elon Musk's convertial statements on Twitter, members of the automotive and EV press industry have been asking Elon Musk to reinstate Tesla’s PR department. 

Yet in response to this query, Elon Musk has given a resolute no, stating,

“Other companies spend money on advertising and manipulating public opinion, Tesla focuses on the product. I trust the people.” 

We, and many others in the industry and Tesla’s consumer base, disagree with this decision. 

This opinion is based on our understanding of what a PR department is for, why Musk may be distrustful of them and the general media, and why Tesla is in a dangerous position of needing a PR department more than it may have needed one at any other point in its history. 

The name PR is short for Public Relations and its primary job is to help ensure that the company is well thought of and well-represented in the public sphere. They help ensure that publicity around the company is positive not negative, and they keep the press, and thus the public, informed about what’s going on.

But, they also field questions from the media about the company. They provide official B-roll media and photographs, and they help journalists accurately cover the company. And finally, they keep an eye on the Internet to make sure that anything that’s unfair or inaccurate in the public domain is dealt with, and that any negative publicity is handled appropriately. 

They’re also essential when it comes to a breaking news story. 

Take the Bolt EV fire that happened in Virginia, USA in early May (2021). Their department was reachable almost immediately for a statement. This means that not only do journalists receive and distribute accurate, first-hand information, but they also have a reliable source for updates and clarification when working on a story. 

PR departments also do a lot of clean up. If a member of the media says something that’s inaccurate, it’s the PR department then reaches out to them with a correction. It’s no coincidence that the people who handle PR for companies are often former members of the press. 

Why? Well, because a PR specialist who was once a member of the media usually does a far better job in this area than someone who hasn’t worked in the media. Former media PR teams understand what journalists want to know and how they work. It’s a bit like a poacher becoming a gamekeeper;  they know how poachers operate, and thus, are more readily prepared to be a good gamekeeper. 

Tesla’s reluctance to speak to members of the press in recent years, and its blatant ignoring of questions relating to breaking news stories, means that whenever a story breaks involving Tesla, it’s almost impossible to get a straight answer from the company. 

Elon Musk famously hates dealing with the press, and straight-up ignores most journalists online when they ask questions via Twitter. That is difficult for consumers and journalists. And, as Elon is known for making grandiose statements concerning all of his companies using the platform, as well as posting memes and clickbait, that’s when it really has become a problem for the company. 

This is perhaps no better illustrated that Elon’s now infamous ‘going private at four twenty’ tweet. That tweet, which got Elon into hot water with the SEC and resulted in him stepping down as chairman of the board of directors at Tesla, also came with a demand from the SEC that Elon change how he used Twitter, running tweets from his personal account that mention Tesla through an internal review process to make sure that nothing like the four-twenty incident happened again. 

Traditionally, a PR department would be the team to deal with this kind of mishap. PR teams work with the CEO and board of directors to plan official announcements, including on social platforms, and make sure that nothing is said publicly that could later cause a problem for the company. With the recent backlash Tesla has faced in light of the incidents mentioned above, a PR team could have been a crucial step in addressing these issues appropriately.

Without a PR department, there’s nobody for Elon to run such tweets by, which we think is perhaps why he doesn't seem to be in a rush to reinstate one, this being our own skepticism of the situation. 

When a company gets to the size and influence of Tesla, homogeneity of branding, image, and response is essential. Right now, Tesla has none of that. Sure, it did recently hire someone to help respond to tweets on behalf of Tesla and Elon, but one person doesn’t make an official PR department. 

Elon is probably one of the more public-facing CEOs out there. But to be frank, some of the ups and downs that have followed Tesla’s share price have been directly related to things Elon has said on Twitter, from his distrust of COVID precautionary measures to his thoughts on pronoun use, his promises for Tesla Autopilot, and more. 

If there was a clear delineation between his personal tweets and those relating to his company, it would be less troublesome. But everyone knows that Tesla is Elon and Elon is Tesla, and Space X, and Neuralink, and the Boring Company. He has eyeballs. He has influence. 

And as the famous quote goes, with great power comes great responsibility. 

Transport Evolved feels this pressure too. We recently hired a social media manager here to help ensure that this company, and the content we produce, is well represented and separate from personal thoughts and content that used to get thrown in the company mix from the founder. 

It is hard to separate the founder of Transport Evolved, Nikki, from the brand and community she created, initially single handedly. Her voice and vision is what so many people grew familiar with and enjoyed, or didn’t, in the early days of Transport Evolved. This is to say, we get it. But we know it’s important to have a clear voice of the brand that is separate from the voice of the founder, so we are taking the steps to do so. And we think Tesla needs to join suit. 

Original article found in video format here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1osAdo3JdQ