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.
Probably at least another 25 percent of people would not consider Tesla products at all due to misinformation from the oil and gas lobby. Then at least 50 percent cannot afford Tesla. Certainly there is overlap between these groups, but still I am pretty sure that Elons political hobby is costly to Tesla. Unfortunately, whatever Tesla may lose in future revenue, he gains back through crypto pump and dump schemes.
The problem is also that the typical tesla customer was progressive or left leaning, a group which greatly overlaps with the people he pissed off. Plus he doesn’t seem to have pickud up a to of potential customers on the right, they seem to tolerate him at best.