Surprisingly, Mr. Ewing, who joined The Times in 2010 as a European economics reporter based in Frankfurt, doesn’t consider himself much of a car enthusiast.
“I’m interested in the engineering,” he said. “I like to visit factories. But I’m not someone who gets all excited about horse power, or some new kind of car.”
In a recent conversation, Mr. Ewing, who is now based in New York, discussed the challenges of reporting on a company as secretive as Tesla. These are edited excerpts.
How has your beat changed, given Elon Musk’s role in the federal government?
There has always been a strong policy aspect to my beat, and I’ve written about Tesla a lot — their sales, their technology. Now those things have converged. I’m not sure what the right analogy is, but when you mix two things together and they start boiling and making steam, that’s sort of what’s happening now in Washington. Elon Musk and Tesla have become one with the Washington policy aspect of my job.
You’ve collaborated with several other desks at The Times, including Climate and Politics, to cover Musk. It seems like every desk is affected by his presence.
Yes. I think that one thing Musk and President Trump have in common is they both want to be the center of the conversation and are willing to do almost anything to ensure that they’re in people’s heads constantly. They’re both very good at it. I’ve been covering business for over 25 years, and I’ve certainly never encountered a business executive who is so well known and commands so much media attention. There have been some colorful figures, but nobody that is in Musk’s league.
What are the greatest challenges of your beat in this moment?
Musk has famously grouped The New York Times with what he calls the mainstream media. And he eliminated Tesla’s P.R. department several years ago, so I’ve never had a conversation with anyone at Tesla. I’ve spoken to former Tesla employees. But in all the years that I’ve covered Tesla, they just do not engage at all.
I imagine that says a lot about the company’s work culture.
Yes, it’s known as a place where anybody who is found to have spoken to the media is fired immediately. I recently wrote about an employee who posted something on LinkedIn that was critical of Musk and was later fired.
It’s also difficult getting people who’ve left the company to talk because they’re still afraid of Musk. People who no longer work for Tesla but have interests that overlap with the company are afraid to say anything because they’re worried that Musk, particularly with his connections in Washington, might retaliate in some way.
Has reader response changed at all?
It has certainly gotten more intense. Tesla has always been a company that people react to very emotionally. I get lots of hate mail from Tesla fans all the time.
The comments section, which reflects our readership to some extent, tends to be overwhelmingly anti-Musk. The kind of reaction he’s provoking in people is really extraordinary for a business executive. He’s turned off a lot of people. I think that’s one of the reasons Tesla’s sales are going down.
What are those fans saying?
The general tone is: You just don’t get it. Musk’s a genius. He’s going to prove you wrong. He’s going to solve autonomous driving. The company’s shares are going to be worth five times what they are worth now.
They see Musk as a hero. Whenever I write about Tesla or Musk, I tend to get a lot of negative reaction, and not just in the comments section — it’s in my inbox. I think any reporter who covers politics or hot-button issues deals with that. I don’t think that my experience is unusual.
I imagine people already have strong feelings about cars as it is. Then you add the extra political layer to it.
Absolutely. Americans get very emotional about their cars. They get very attached.
I’m curious: Growing up, were you always interested in cars?
When I was a teenager, I used to work on cars with my friends. But when I got older, I came to regard cars as sort of an expensive pain. One thing I liked about living in Europe for many years was taking trains everywhere. When I was in Frankfurt, I owned a car but I didn’t use it that much. I got around by bicycle, and I loved that. I’m not a car buff.
