Mr Musk has always regarded his company as a tech firm, a peer of digital giants like Alphabet, Apple or Meta, not of old-economy metal-bashers such as Toyota or Volkswagen.For a time, so did the market—first as tech shares soared amid the pandemic-era boom in all things digital, then as they slumped last year, after their growth began to slow and higher interest rates made their promised future profits look less valuable today.Having managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic supply-chain disruptions, Tesla has been caught up in China’s chaotic retreat from the zero-covid policy; its big factory in Shanghai has been hit by virus-related shutdowns.EV-buyers, for their part, are becoming less willing than early adopters to overlook Tesla’s questionable build quality and the interior of a much cheaper car.And the natural Tesla-owners among the wealthy progressive set are less prepared to overlook Mr Musk’s libertarian antics at Twitter, which he bought in October and has mismanaged with gusto—especially now that they have plenty of conscience-salving EV alternatives to choose from."