The $65,000 Pyramid: Electric Autojournos Pump Tesla Stock, Receive Massive Gifts

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Imagine the following scenario: Your humble author buys an Accord Coupe, and loves it, and suggests that you do the same. Not so hard to imagine, insofar as that’s what actually happened.

Now let’s imagine I tell you that you, the TTAC reader, can get a discount on an Accord if you use my referral code. That’s kind of odd, right? After all, I’m here to report on the Accord, not to incentivize your purchase. Last but not least, let’s imagine that for every four Accords sold with my referral code, Honda gives me $6,200 worth of Honda products. A new CBR500, maybe, or an ATV for my son. And let’s say that there’s actually more to it than that — in fact, for every four Accords I sell, I can receive up to eleven thousand dollars’ worth of goodies.

Last but not least, let’s imagine that I hold a significant amount of Honda stock and that my posts are written with the knowledge that positive Honda stories might help that stock move in a direction that is profitable for me.

Sounds crazy, right? Welcome to the world of Fred Lambert and his site, electrek.co.

It’s apparently not unusual for Electrek writers to hold positions in Tesla stock, and although they periodically disclose that fact, it’s not usually disclosed in close proximity to stories like Tesla Model S Crushes All Competition. What you will find right beneath that article: an invitation to use the writer’s code for a Tesla referral. That’s where you’ll see that the writer has made twenty referrals for new Tesla purchases. And we can also see that Fred Lambert, the site’s editor-in-chief and the man responsible for setting the ethical compass of the site, has successfully referred six new owners.

What do they get? Let’s see:

Referrals one and two are worth at least $500 each. Referral three is worth between four and seven thousand dollars on the resale market. Referral four is worth $7,200. That’s if you refer new Tesla cars. Referring new Tesla solar will get you $400 in cash, or $750 in credit, per referral.

Electrek’s Jameson Dow has twenty referrals. Depending on when he made them, and the conditions of each program, we could be talking about more than sixty thousand dollars in items that can be easily resold for cash. Fred Lambert has six referrals, for a total of ten grand or more. This is all direct from Tesla. We’re not talking the kind of paid vacations against which this site has traditionally railed, nor are we talking about freebies like Jonny Lieberman’s no-cost year in a $65,000 Cadillac station wagon. We’re talking cold hard cash possibilities.

When notorious cross-country speeder Alex Roy and a few other autowriters called Lambert out, this was his response:

He has a point. The breathless, fawning content written by Electrek regarding Tesla is regularly picked up by other outlets. Which helps boost Tesla’s stock price, making them money. And the links lead to referrals, which put highly valuable freebies in the hands of Fred and his editorial staff. It’s a pyramid of cash that just keeps growing.

Should you care? Only if you are interested in an electric car and want to know the truth about the products. Do you really think that new electric vehicles from Ford, Toyota, and other companies are going to get a fair shake on Electrek when there’s a five-or-six-figure incentive for them to keep pushing Tesla? Do you think that Electrek will report fairly and honestly on Tesla’s problems when they are holding the stock?

Our readers have often expressed a bit of ennui with TTAC’s occasional insistence on showing you how the autojourno sausage is made. But this should make you sit up and pay attention. What’s the right thing for Electrek to do? I suggest that they sell their “gifts” from Tesla and donate the money to charity. That would be a good start. And it would provide a strong counterpoint to the people who will say that electric auto journalism is nothing but advertorial content under another name. Is it gonna happen? Given that Mr. Lambert has blocked his critics on Twitter and refused to respond to my inquiries, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

[Images via Twitter]

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • 87 Morgan 87 Morgan on Sep 29, 2017

    This is why TTAC is so great. Those of us in the B&B don't actually buy new cars, everyone knows that. Jack, we rely on you to buy/lease/rent a new car to tell us what we should or should not be looking to purchase 3 years from now. So, from that standpoint I have no worries that you are collecting cash or benefits from any purchase decision I may or may not have made based on the recommendation you or anyone else has made on this site.

    • Cactuar Cactuar on Sep 30, 2017

      You've described me perfectly :) Except for the 3 years part; put 7 years instead.

  • HotPotato HotPotato on Sep 30, 2017

    I like EVs and Teslas...and I agree it's time somebody called out Fred Lambert and his site Elektrek. The site is useful for keeping up with Tesla, because nobody pays more attention to Tesla than Fred...after all, his stock value depends on it. But if the topic is other EV's in general, and oh dear god the Chevy Bolt EV in particular, the editorial slant frequently resembles simple trolling. For example, Lambert insists on calling the Bolt a compliance car---a term universally understood to indicate an ultra-low-volume conversion of an existing fossil-fuel model, sold only in CARB states. (The Bolt EV is a distinct electric-only model, with range to rival Teslas costing twice the price, is sold in all 50 states and other countries, and has been moving at a clip of 2000 units a month.) In a recent piece, Fred slams GM in one paragraph for making a car that's piling up unsold on dealer lots, and in the next paragraph slams GM for not making enough of them. The implication is always the same, as the site's commenters helpfully point out for anyone who missed it: that GM SUX LOL. The tone of that coverage seems to have moderated lately since the site's publisher, Seth Weintraub, bought a Bolt EV.

  • MRF 95 T-Bird These 164s, as documented by its owner have to be constantly sorted, as they say. They are nice drivers. I’d rather find a, under the 25 year rule nice and easier to deal with Type 916 Alfa Romeo GTV/Spyder.
  • Jeff If VW offers enough of a pay increase and benefits then there will be no union. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have managed to keep from being unionized by offering wages and benefits slightly below the UAW. Seems that VW is either not doing that or just has management and labor issues they need to resolve. VW would be better to resolve any labor issues and be competitive in pay and benefits is they don't want to be unionized.
  • Google Maybe if the Toronto police weren't so busy falsely arresting reporters who were doing their job, they might have more time to protect the citizens of Toronto from these thieves. Of course its easier to pick on peaceful reporters than actually arrest criminals who may have guns!
  • SCE to AUX It's fun when liberal interests fight each other.
  • Varezhka Suzuki Jimny, Toyota Century, and I know it technically just ended production but Honda e.
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