Not so long ago, Teslas were pretty cool cars to own.
OK, they were never for everyone. But if you wanted to be in the vanguard of electric motoring, own something different, enjoy melt-your-eyeballs performance and swish around in an ultra-minimalist interior, there wasn’t much competition.
And Tesla owner Elon Musk? He was Tech’s shiniest golden boy, a new breed of entrepreneur that showed you that someone could make wads of cash and fight climate change. Again, not everyone liked him, but there was a big overlap between Tesla owners and hardcore Elon fanbois.
Oh boy, things have moved on since then.
The Elon Musk Show turns right
We don’t want to stereotype anyone, but it’s fair to say that many early Tesla adopters were affluent and liberal/left-leaning in their politics.
But way back in 2017, the charges of unfair labour practices at Tesla were already causing some unease among his supporters. In 2018, one of Elon’s tweets got him into legal trouble for appearing to threaten workers who wanted to unionise.
Hey, said his defenders, nobody’s perfect – and Musk was saving the planet.
By 2020, when Covid hit, Musk was reopening his California plant against local lockdown laws and taking a vaccine-sceptical line. Another big dollop of cognitive dissonance for Tesla owners to swallow.
That was nothing compared to what was coming next.
A full list of Musk’s right turns would take up many, many words, but highlights include:
- Buying and deregulating Twitter, allowing extremist voices to go unchallenged.
- Vigorously supporting the emperor of climate-change deniers, Donald Trump.
- Heading up the Department of Government Efficiency, responsible for cutting diversity and inclusivity initiatives, foreign aid, and consumer protection bodies.
- Attacking the Kyiv administration and President Zelensky.
- Backing Germany’s far-right AfD party.
Did we forget anything? Oh yes, there was that alleged Nazi-style salute.
Tesla turns toxic?
Whether you agree or disagree with what Musk is all about, the point is to ask what sort of car owner his changing views would chime with. And (with stereotyping warnings again), you can imagine his views pleasing a gun-toting MAGA enthusiast who drives a pick-up truck. They are less likely to enthuse, say, an EV-loving, EU supporting, Belgian.
There are plenty of signs that Tesla owners think Musk has turned their once-loved brand toxic.
Some of those signs are, quite literally, signs. Mortified Tesla owners can now distance themselves from the company CEO with a range of bumper stickers, including, ‘I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE ELON WENT CRAZY’ and the more succinct, ‘ELON SUCKS’. Sales for one bumper-sticker seller reached 300 a day – and that was before the current round of controversies.
When formerly proud owners are embarrassed by the Tesla CEO’s shenanigans, it doesn’t bode well for future sales. What’s worse is that the sentiment has spread well beyond the Tesla owners’ community. Activists are slapping ‘Don’t buy swasticars’ stickers on Teslas in London, together with more overt acts of vandalism happening elsewhere. Bus stop posters are springing up that read ‘Goes from 0 to 1939 in three seconds‘. Ouch.
Still, the question is whether any of this is moving the needle on Tesla sales.
So far, so not-very-good
The first indications that there could be a serious Tesla backlash came in January this year.
Holy spreadsheets, just look at these year-on-year falls in Europe!
- Germany: Sales down by 59.5%
- France: Sales down by 63%
- Netherlands: Sales down by 42.5%
- Norway: Sales down by 40.2%
- Spain: Sales down by 75.4%
- Sweden: Sales down by 46%
Sales in the UK were down by a modest 12%. The overall drop across Europe was an absolutely eye-watering 45%.
Some of these losses can be attributed to other factors, including potential buyers waiting for the refreshed Model Y and other manufacturers catching up with Tesla’s offerings. After all, Tesla sales also fell in China by 11.5%, and that’s almost certainly nothing to do with their CEO.
Nevertheless, we shouldn’t underestimate the strength of public feeling Musk has unleashed. One survey of Dutch Tesla owners suggests that only half them felt proud to own the car, and just under a third were planning to get rid of their Tesla or had already done so. Less scientifically (not that the poll was very scientific), take a look at this article from Ars Technica that we used in our research. As things stand, there are 21 pages of comments on the piece, the majority of which are lambasting Elon Musk and Tesla. None of this looks great for one of the World’s most highly valued automotive brands.
Spot the dorsal fins
Our conclusion? It’s too early to tell, but it’s entirely possible that Tesla’s fortunes are on the wane.
When there’s blood is in the water, the sharks start circling. Which manufacturer could take the biggest bite? We’ll take a look in Part Two.
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