Tesla's sales have plummeted in some of the world's largest electric vehicle markets.Bloomberg published an article on Tuesday stating that Elon Musk’s (Elon Musk’s) political remarks and actions have triggered resentment and resistance from Tesla owners.In order to cut ties with Musk, some car owners decided to sell their Teslas or buy cars from other brands., affecting Tesla sales.
Tae Helton is a car enthusiast who lives a few minutes' drive from Tesla's flagship factory in California. He bought a Tesla for his family car and almost bought another last year.
cutting
However, after Musk made a Nazi salute-like gesture at President Trump's inauguration last month,He decided to completely sever ties with the brand.
"The pride and the good feeling I had when I drove it is no longer there," Helton said of the Model 3, which he has only driven about 2,500 miles. The politically neutral 49-year-old plans to pay off his car loan early and replace the car before the end of the year.
Helton isn't the only Tesla customer and consumer to think this way.After suffering its first global delivery decline in more than a decade in 2024, Tesla's European sales plunged 45% in January this year. Tesla is under particularly high pressure in a market where Musk is involved in politics and his words and actions are contrary to Tesla's mission and values.
Musk’s political consequences
In California, Tesla sales fell 12% last year. But Musk is attacking California's governor, who played a key role in helping Tesla survive its early turmoil and climb into the ranks of the world's most valuable companies.
In Germany, Tesla registrations fell by 41% last year and fell by 59% in January this year. In this country, Musk strongly supports a far-right party that denies the harm of carbon dioxide emissions. In the UK, Europe's largest electric vehicle market, Musk has formed an alliance with anti-electric vehicle politicians, who want to cancel the net-zero carbon emissions target and call policies to promote the popularity of electric vehicles a "declaration of war on car owners."
"The biggest challenge Tesla faces in 2025 is not technology, but brand image,"Jacob Falkencrone, global head of investment strategy at Danske Bank Saxo, which oversees more than 105 billion euros in client assets, said "Musk's political controversy is now affecting Tesla sales, brand loyalty and investor confidence."
resist new heights
Musk’s controversial behavior is nothing new and has already offended many customers. In 2023, Bloomberg News conducted a survey of more than 5,000 Tesla owners. The results showed that Musk's approval rating fell the most among all the issues consumers were asked about four years ago.
But this year, the backlash against Musk has reached another level.
Outside Tesla's Berlin factory, activists projected an image of Musk suspected of giving a Nazi salute onto the building's exterior wall. The video was viewed millions of times on Musk's social media X. Tesla showrooms in the Netherlands, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state were vandalized. Protesters held demonstrations at dozens of Tesla stores across the United States over the weekend.
“I don’t know if any brand has suffered more damage to its brand value in such a short period of time than Tesla,” said Tom Price, a resident of Berkeley, California, who participated in the city’s demonstrations holding a “Don’t Drive DOGE” sign (criticizing Musk’s political involvement). “Tesla has become a four-wheeled billboard promoting the destruction of our democracy.”
Musk polls poorly among Britons, Germans and Swedes.The Swedish survey also found that locals have an increasingly negative view of Tesla. Last month, Model Y registrations in Sweden fell by 48%, while Model 3 sales fell by 31%.
The Pew Research Center found that most Americans have a negative view of Musk. Quinnipiac University said a majority of voters believe he has too much power to make decisions that affect the United States. One Republican strategist who advocates for bipartisan adoption of electric vehicles found thatMusk is now more popular among people who drive gas-powered cars than among those who drive electric cars.
“I used to be adored by the left,” Musk said in a joint interview with Trump that aired last week, “but not so much anymore.”
Sell Tesla
Some consumers will no longer consider Tesla's new models. San Francisco Bay Area resident Eric Thurber bought a Model 3 in 2021 and originally planned to drive it for five or six years. But after Inauguration Day, he decided to sell the car at a huge loss.
"I can no longer stand what Musk has done," the 58-year-old said. Thurber had checked the used price of his car a few months ago and received regular updates showing it was losing value rapidly. Although he still had a loan of about $27,000 on his Model 3, when the used car company Carvana gave it a valuation of $22,000, he decided to sell it and replace it with a BMW i4 electric sedan.
Micah Barber is a college professor living in Austin. At the end of 2021, Tesla moved its headquarters to Austin. He currently drives a gas-powered Chevrolet Equinox SUV and plans to switch his family's next car to an electric vehicle. Although he once admired the innovation Tesla brought to the auto industry, he has ruled out buying a Tesla vehicle because of Musk.
“He has become one of the most dangerous men in our country,” Barber, 43, said of Musk at a protest this month in front of Tesla’s Austin showroom.
Helton said in the previous article: "I have always felt that if my vote cannot affect the outcome I want,I can also vote from my wallet, whether it’s Tesla or anything else, I’ve been voting with my wallet (buying other car brands) lately. "