Elon Musk doubles down on his controversial April Fools' joke with an Instagram photo of a Tesla-branded tequila bottle
- Elon Musk doubled down on an April Fools' Joke with an Instagram post showing what appears to be a Tesla-branded tequila bottle.
- The post was an extension of an April 1 Twitter thread in which Musk responded to concerns about the company's financial health by joking about the company going bankrupt.
- Musk has used branded merchandise to raise money for his tunneling company, The Boring Company.
After a week of questions about Tesla's ability to pay back bond-holders and produce cars at a scale that would lessen the need for future capital raises, CEO Elon Musk drew criticism for joking about concerns surrounding the company in an April Fools' Day Twitter thread.
The thread was written as a fake news story about Tesla going bankrupt, including a reference to Musk being "passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by 'Teslaquilla' bottles."
On Wednesday, Musk doubled down on that joke with an Instagram photo of what appears to be a tequila bottle with a "Teslaquila" label bearing Tesla's logo. Musk didn't include a caption with the photo, and Tesla didn't immediately confirm whether the photo was an extension of Musk's April Fools' joke or a hint toward future, Tesla-branded merchandise.
Musk has used branded merchandise to raise money and draw attention toward his tunnel-boring business, The Boring Company, with which he hopes to construct underground tunnel networks that could be used for his proposed Loop and Hyperloop high-speed transit systems.
Last year, Musk raised $1 million and drew media attention for selling 50,000 branded hats, and earlier this year, he raised $10 million by selling 20,000 branded flamethrowers. Last week, Musk said the Boring Company would sell interlocking, Lego-style bricks made from rock and soil displaced by the company's tunnel-digging machines.
On Tuesday, Tesla announced that it made 9,766 Model 3 vehicles during the first quarter and 2,020 in its final week. The company had previously said that it would be producing 2,500 Model 3s each week by the end of the first quarter, and the company confirmed that it still hopes to make 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of the second quarter.
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