25% of Americans avoid Tesla technology because of Elon Musk

Sign up to receive daily news updates from CleanTechnica by email. Or follow us on Google News.

Three things are no secret: 1) Elon Musk has benefited more from Tesla’s success than anyone else, and 2) Elon Musk is extremely involved in political issues (we say “very”). (my emphasis), 3) Many people will not buy Tesla products because of the first two facts.

A new study from JW Surety Bonds found that one in four Americans “avoids Tesla technology because of their opinion of Elon Musk.” That’s a quarter of Americans who don’t consider good electric cars, including the world’s best-selling cars, because of Mr. Musk’s highly unusual involvement in American politics.

Before getting into the details of the study, it should also be noted that Mr. Musk is increasingly involved in European politics in the UK, Italy, Germany and other major countries, including in highly unusual and far-right ways. be. car market. Undoubtedly, this is starting to impact consumer behavior in Europe as well.

I can’t think of anything more important when it comes to selling consumer products. Yes, there are some other businessmen who are deeply involved in politics, but they are not as directly involved or tied to important mass-market products. (We’re not counting the guys at MyPillow, for example.) There are also founders and CEOs of large companies who are known to be political activists, attracting widespread and significant scrutiny or damaging the brands they represent. I don’t say it out loud enough to say that.

While it may be surprising given the values ​​and norms Tesla is known for, and perhaps unsurprising given how popular Tesla is among young people, Elon Musk’s fault The age group most likely to avoid Tesla technology is baby boomers (those born in 1946). 1964). But despite stereotypes, baby boomers came of age during a time of massive cultural change in the 1960s and 1970s. They were deeply involved in breaking through conservative and closed cultural norms and charting a new direction for American culture and the world. It is therefore not too surprising that many in this generation resent the strong pressure to “go back” and return to something more closed and traditional again. That generation also has a greater appreciation for the effort required to change society and is more aware of what life was like before that change.

Tesla’s sales decreased in 2024 compared to 2023. This was the company’s first annual sales decline since the Model S was launched in 2012. There are many reasons for that, but Tesla definitely took a hit in sales in its major market, California. Because, as elsewhere, Elon Musk is becoming more and more involved and making increasingly extreme political commitments. There is already strong research on this, including a significant drop in Tesla sales in California. However, the situation steadily escalated as the year went on, with Donald Trump being elected president in November instead of Kamala Harris, and Elon Musk being the president of Trump during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and so on. Being by his side has helped me reach new heights. Although we can’t imagine consumer backlash weakening any further, we speculate that this will be a key driver of consumer demand for Tesla in 2025.

Interestingly, the majority of JW surety bonds were related to other Tesla issues, and the results were more positive. Nevertheless, the above topics, which they led to when they emailed me about their results, stand out as being of great importance. Other topics will be covered in a second article soon.

In the meantime, be sure to listen to my discussion with David Habashi about what we expect in terms of Tesla models and sales in 2025.