马斯克在财报电话会议上说:
“很多人都是靠薪水过日子的，而且负债累累。他们有信用卡债务，抵押贷款债务。所以，对大多数人来说，这就是现实。”
“我对我们所处的高利率环境感到担忧。我再怎么强调也不为过，绝大多数人都是靠月供买车。随着利率上升，月供当中利息的比例自然也会上升。”
“如果利率保持在高位，甚至变得更高，人们就更难买车了。”
鉴于今年的银行倒闭，他还对消费者能否获得信贷表示担忧。
“很多地区银行倒闭了，我的意思是，竟然连瑞信也倒闭了，天哪，太令人震惊了。”
信用卡利率是“高利贷”和“惩罚”
“真是令人叹为观止。不过我认为，在这么糟糕的信贷形势下，坏消息恐怕还没完。”马斯克推断道。“我的意思是，商业房地产显然处于糟糕的状态。信用卡债务一直在显著上升。”
他称信用卡利率“高利贷”，并表示随着时间的推移，如此高的利率“显然是极具惩罚性的”，这可能意味着那些累积信用卡债务的人可能无法还清。
马斯克说:“如果你还不清贷款，你就得背 20% 的利息，再好能好到哪里去。” 这对汽车行业来说可不是什么好消息。
这位特斯拉首席执行官表示: “我可能显得有点偏执，我很抱歉，因为这可能也是事实，因为我从2009年开始就患有创伤后应激障碍。” 他分享了在那绝境中的一年、最后一刻的融资才让公司勉强过关，“勉勉强强地”度过了那一关。
“我们不会沉没。但在一场风暴中，再大的船也会经受挑战，”马斯克补充道。“现在，这场风暴将波及所有人，不仅仅是我们，也不仅仅是汽车行业。我认为这将波及所有人。”
“A lot of - a large number of people are living paycheck-to-paycheck,” Musk said on the earnings call. “And with a lot of debt. They’ve got credit card debt, mortgage debt. So, yes, that’s reality for most people.”
“I am worried about the high interest rate environment that we’re in. I just can’t emphasize this enough, that the vast majority of people buying a car is about the monthly payment. And as interest rates rise, the proportion of that monthly payment that is interest increases naturally.”
“If interest rates remain high or if they go even higher, it’s that much harder for people to buy the car,” said Musk. He also expressed concern about the availability of credit for consumers in light of the bank failures this year. “A lot of regional banks died, and I mean, even Credit Suisse, I mean, geez, that was a shocker.”
Credit card interest rate are “usurious” and “punishing”
“That’s mind-blowing. And I think there’s still quite a few shoes to drop on the bad credit situation,” Musk extrapolated. “I mean, commercial real estate obviously is in terrible shape. Credit card debt has been rising significantly.”
On the last point he called credit card interest rates “usurious” and said that over time such high interest rates become “obviously extremely punishing” and could mean that those racking up credit card debt might not be able to pay them off.
“You can’t pay them off and you’re still accruing interest of 20%, you’re at best headed to a bad place,” said Musk. All this could spell bad news for the car industry as well.
“I apologize if I’m perhaps more paranoid than I should be because that might also be the case because I am - I have PTSD from 2009 big time,” said the Tesla CEO. He shared how last minute financing kept the company going through that perilous year but “barely.”
“We’re not going to sink. But even a great ship in a storm has challenges,” added Musk. “Now, that storm will apply to everyone, not just us and not just the auto industry. It will apply to everyone, I think.”