He has also repeatedly called out EVS as being unreliable and "not going very far." Before he became buddies with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he ridiculed him and his businesses. Related: Costco has a massive labor problem nobody is talking about When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects,

After a political detour that angered customers and tanked profits, the billionaire CEO returns to a Tesla in crisis.

Tesla's electric vehicle sales plunged in the second quarter as the company continues to face a backlash from CEO Elon Musk's political turn. Why it matters: EVs are an essential source of cash flow for Tesla as it pursues ambitious projects like self-driving cars and humanoid robots.