Three things are no secret: 1) Elon Musk benefits more than any other individual from Tesla’s success, 2) Elon Musk has gotten extremely involved in political matters (emphasis on “extremely”), and 3) many people won’t buy Tesla products because of those first two facts.
New research from JW Surety Bonds finds that 1 out of 4 Americans “avoid Tesla’s technology due to their opinions on Elon Musk.” That’s a full quarter of the US public that won’t consider great electric vehicles, including the best selling vehicle in the world, because of Musk’s highly abnormal involvement in US politics.
Before we get to more of the research, it should also be noted that Musk has been getting more and more involved, including in highly abnormal and extremely right-wing ways, in European politics — in the UK, Italy, Germany, and other major auto markets. Without a doubt, this is starting to impact consumer behavior in Europe as well.
I can’t think of anything else as significant in consumer product sales. Yes, there are some other highly politically engaged business people, but they aren’t so directly involved or tied to significant mass-market products. (I’m not counting the MyPillow guy, for example.) There are founders and CEOs of major corporations who are known political actors, but not so openly and loudly that they draw widely significant scrutiny or tarnish the brand they represent.
75% of americans are selfish assholes.
I legitimately used to want a Tesla car, long long ago.
Opinions of him are negative here in the UK as well. In April 2022, 40% of Brits had an unfavourable opinion of him. By August 2024, that had risen to 64%.
Right. Because that’s the ONLY reason we aren’t buying Tesla shit. It has nothing to do with the cost of everything sky rocketing.
Then that is the reason that you are avoiding them. They know you aren’t buying. What’s important here is the people that can afford a Tesla but are choosing to look elsewhere because of Elon. This includes repeat customers as well.
How many of those are the target demographic for Tesla?
I would not buy a Tesla because of musk, but also because I don’t have the need for a car or the income for one.
I’ve had one for over 5 years. I’m not buying another car for about 5 years but its not going to be a Tesla.
I was looking at an electric car, decided against it because they are way too expensive. But during my research Tesla was completely out of the question for me because I will never support that piece of shit.
My SO always reminds me how I wanted to buy a Tesla around 2018 and was a big fan of Elon Musk having read his biography. Fortunately or unfortunately he decided to not keep his mouth shut lol. I won’t consider buying Tesla for any reason, even if they start ranking as the best quality built car.
just bought a kia instead of Tesla, also my house came with level 2 CCS
You avoid Teslas because of Elon Musk. I avoid Teslas because of security, privacy, and proprietary tech concerns.
We are not the same.
/j
I avoid teslas because I have a white car and I don’t want them to crash into me.
That’s a full quarter of the US public that won’t consider great electric vehicles
This is subjective.
including the best selling vehicle in the world
This is distorted by the fact that they have fewer than half a dozen models. They aren’t even in the top 10 brands world wide. BYD is in the top 10 and they sell twice as many vehicles.
Tesla isn’t growing and as the foul Musk spread through global politics the brand will fall more. He wasted his first mover advantage. It’s just a waiting game on how long the market will remain irrational with the stock price.
Exactly this, I would’ve bought one eventually if he’d just shut up, a lot of would.
But why would I support an openly racist, fascist, fuckhead trying to buy his way into power? Toyota, Honda, Kia, and all the other corpos are plenty evil and have the manufacturing and support experience an auto maker needs.
The idea of a generic parts “libreauto” is cool. A frame/chassis designed to accept drop-in parts from other established manufacturers so you could part out wrecked cars and assemble them into your own frankencar.
Yeah fuck this guy
I hate how, when he needs some money, he can just drop a crypto meme coin name somewhere on social media and watch the price go up. He can then sell all of the coins he undoubtedly bought beforehand and sit back and watch a couple of millions added to his bank account. He did it a couple of times with doge, and now with kekius. I’m not smart enough to follow the money for crypto coins, but I’m sure someone could identify one or more whale accounts with suspicious buying and selling moments for these coins as Musk’s secret little money factories. (Or the creation of a couple of thousands of smaller accounts, if he really wanted to conceal his tracks)
They’re also not good cars. There’s no reason to buy a new one in 2025
Even now I’m pretty sure they have one of the best if not the best drivetrains. The problem is everything else is total trash and you won’t be able to fix it if anything goes wrong
That’s the thing that sucks. Engine tech is incredible. Everything else is miserably and embarassingly bad. Even if Elmo wasn’t such a colossal fucking bigot, I would never consider getting a Tesla for the asking price, or used
In 2014 I would have if I really needed an EV, but these days I can just get an Audi.
Fair point. I have considered Tesla swapping a Prius because it would be hilarious
great electric vehicles
You could’ve shutted the fuck up and profited
And Donald Trump could have invested his inheritance and made more money than god, yet look at them now?
That’s the problem when people are born on 3rd base. They get to walk it in and think they hit a home run when really they just did what any normal person would’ve done. Someone else would probably even do it better.
Ludacris display.
Tesla has “tech”!?!??
They sell average EVs, a bunch of branded meme items, and a stock. No tech.
The problem is how many are still ideologically attracted to him or the MAGA movement and how likely are they to be impulse buyers. Musk already made sure to get the most money he could out of the nerds that would have no problem moving onto competitors once there was legitimate competition. There’s legitimate competition, meaning that in order for Musk to continue making the big bucks, he has to appeal to the same sort of market Alex Jones was able to peddle bullshit dietary supplements to.
For me, its more about the fact that I don’t trust that unhinged motherfucker to not do a mandatory update in the middle of the highway and disable braking.
