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.
Count me among the boycotters. Musk has made it all but certain I’ll never ever buy any product or service he benefits from if I can avoid it.
Also…
There. FTFY.
He is one of the most dangerous people today. Not one penny of my money will go to him willingly from me.
I fucking hate saying this and agree but it doesn’t matter if any of our money goes to him… he’s a legit supervillain that has the most money. It’s insane. Nothing matters anymore. (Okay some things matter, if someone buys a tesla, money notwithstanding, they also forfeit their privacy)
So, not Iron Man at all, then, just Lex Luthor with hair plugs.
And he actually even has the hair plugs
I’m trying to decide if second hand purchases would somehow have upstream effects.
Yes, because then the original purchase has more value.
Improving the resale value makes the new product more desirable.