Tesla (TSLA) shareholders were getting excited on social media about a “Tesla prototype” that turned out to be a competitor’s prototype vehicle.

A new electric vehicle prototype started showing up on social media, and Tesla shareholders started sharing it, assuming it was a Tesla prototype.

A Tesla shareholder part of the “Rebellionaire” group on X, a group of Tesla stock pumpers, even shared it, claiming that it is “what gets him ultra bullish” on Tesla:

The only problem is that it wasn’t even a Tesla prototype.

Faraday Future (FF) came out and confirmed that it is a prototype mule of their new ‘Faraday X’:

That’s our testing vehicle, a Faraday X Prototype Mule.

FF is better known for its very high-end FF91, but it is currently developing less expensive next-generation vehicles under its new Faraday X brand.

Tesla shareholders got excited because some are still holding on to the idea that Tesla is going to release new cheaper electric vehicles under new models.

This is due to CEO Elon Musk falsely denying a report that Tesla canceled its cheaper electric vehicles based on its next-gen platform (NV91-92) in favor of the ‘Cybercab’ and stripped-down versions of the Model 3 and Model Y.

Tesla has confirmed all that in their most recent financial results and earnings calls, but some are still holding on to the idea that Tesla plans to release completely new models due to Musk’s comments.

Electrek’s Take

I think part of Tesla’s problems right now are due to its shareholder base not recognizing its problems and blindly believing what Elon Musk says, despite a long history of misleading and plain wrong.

This is a prime example.

Tesla has now confirmed what we have been reporting for a year: the new vehicles are just going to be stripped-down versions of Model 3 and Model Y.

No new models are coming to market other than supposedly the Cybercab, but as long as this is only planned without a steering wheel, it is useless until it can solve unsupervised self-driving, which it has yet to do.

This is a problem that shareholders are either ignoring or don’t believe.

Tesla launched a single new model in the last five years, the Cybertruck, which was a commercial flop.

At some point, shareholders must wake up and realize that Musk is destroying Tesla’s EV business and that self-driving vehicles are not coming to save the day.