By David Chaston & Juha Saarinen
As most readers will know, Tesla is seeing sales declines in many global regions. There are now strong suggestions that Tesla sales are suffering because of buyers' aversion to Elon Musk's politics.
Musk, who has taken on a powerful unelected role within the Trump administration, cutting government spending based on unclear authority, has also been a vocal supporter of Germany's far-right, anti-immigrant and pro-Russian Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.
Signs are now that the very public endorsement of the far right by Musk is hurting his brands, Tesla in particular. The declines in some countries have been sharp. Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association suggest Tesla sales have dropped by 45% in the European Union.
It is worth noting that demand for EVs in Europe remains strong, up 37%, due to upcoming stringent tailpipe rules. Tesla however, isn't benefiting from the demand.
Now it appears Musk's toxic politics contagion may have spread to New Zealand Tesla sales, data from the Motor Vehicle Association suggests.
| Tesla | All | ||||||
| Model 3 | Model S | Model X | Model Y | Totals | share | EVs | |
| % | |||||||
| 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 2017 | 128 | 116 | 244 | 45 | 546 | ||
| 2018 | 108 | 146 | 254 | 33 | 763 | ||
| 2019 | 357 | 56 | 89 | 502 | 27 | 1,881 | |
| 2020 | 511 | 27 | 55 | 593 | 39 | 1,533 | |
| 2021 | 3,283 | 4 | 3 | 3,290 | 48 | 6,817 | |
| 2022 | 2,781 | 4,226 | 7,007 | 45 | 15,672 | ||
| 2023 | 971 | 3,936 | 4,907 | 23 | 21,085 | ||
| 2024 | 461 | 826 | 1,287 | 20 | 6,374 | ||
The global decline has also hit Tesla's share price hard:
Tesla is one of Musk's few publicly traded enterprises. He prefers to operate the rest of his empire in the shadows of private businesses, unaffected by real investor reactions. Musk has expressed a wish to privatise Tesla too.
The pushback against Musk is not only manifested against buying his cars, but it is also strongly politically tinted and quite fierce, like this Twitter/X post.
Social network Twitter-X is another Musk property, and it too has faced a backlash as the platform has tilted towards the far right with extremist views no longer being moderated. There have been reports that Musk has used his political power to threaten Twitter-X advertisers who have abandoned the platform due to the content on it not being compatible with their brands.
Whether or not a similar strategy would shore up flagging Tesla sales is unclear at this stage.
46 Comments
Having driven a BYD Seal, I can assure you there's no feeling of cheapness. Quite the opposite.
BYD are a very nice looking car, nice to ride in too, millions of them in china.
I'm fairly sure BYD copied a lot from Tesla, since Elon had a Tesla manufacturing plant in Shanghai and has a lot of open source engineering, this is what i heard from people in China anyway.
Why would Elon make Tesla easy for BYD to copy?
Similar to how Koreans like Apple more than Samsung, I think Tesla has that desirable value in China
James Acaster has highlighted this in his awkwardly humourous way:
James Acaster On The Absurdity Of The British Empire - YouTube
Elon - " Ooooh nooo bad publicity, my company stock is dropping in price, I might have to buy it back at a discount"
Look what happened after he smoked with Joe Rogan on his podcast, board say Elon is not fit to run the company, share price drops. did the company struggle after that?
Side note, TSLA stock price looks suspiciously similar to BTC, I wonder if Tesla owns BTC? rhetorical question, they do.
15 Oct 2024 — Elon Musk's Tesla, one of the biggest corporate owners of bitcoin (BTC), transferred nearly all $760 million of the cryptocurrency it owns to unknown wallets.
I think Elon has proven to be VERY smart, including manipulating companies and stock prices.
Who knows what this man is up to.
No, the payment was blocked because the correct processes weren't followed.
Then, the processes were followed correctly and the payment was made. This was quite upsetting for Musk though - I believe he moved the company HQ from Delaware to Texas to reduce scrutiny.
Are you going woke and swapped out the term bullshit for disinformation?
Delaware.
"Even Hunter Biden helps make the case for the Chancery’s apparent cronyism. In 2018, the president’s beleaguered and scandal-prone son was upset that his business dealings with Chinese energy company CEFC were going awry — so he threatened to sue.
“I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware — which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge in the chancery court,” he wrote in a March 14, 2018 email found on his abandoned laptop first revealed by The Post.
Shawe said Biden’s message “sums up” the court’s reputation.
“He says, ‘If you cross me, I’ll take you to Chancery Court and I know everybody and therefore they’re gonna rule how I tell them,'”
https://nypost.com/2022/07/21/inside-the-shadowy-delaware-court-set-to-…
The harsh reality is that if Musk crashed the demand for Tesla (vechicles and/or shares) by 99% he would still personally be an exceedingly rich person, so from that perspective he doesn't need to give a damn... and maybe that is starting to show.
Personally I think Trump is vile and I can't understand anyone aligning themselves with him, regardless of their political views or aspirations. Trump is stacking appointed positions with people who have public profiles, whether from TV or various online sources... celebrity and self promotion chosen ahead of expertise in their appointed responsibilities. It's bizarre, but it also reflects Trumps deep narcisism and his need to surround himself with people who are just as posessed with the public gaze as he is.
Anyway, I digress a bit.
VW was basically a car from Hitlers Germany, yet people have bought it happily for decades without any associated taint from Nazism. It seems odd that Tesla buyers would be any different, however we are in an overtly 'woke' world, where it seems a very vocal crowd is always on the lookout for something to be offended by.
Anyway, I drive a Tesla. Love it. Best car I've ever had. If anything happened to it to necessitate a replacement I'd still first and foremost look to Tesla. They've had the longest in the game to learn from their mistakes wrt EV tech, and have put their designs through many, many iterations.
There has been a lot of comments recently about not feeling compelled to subscribe to what seems to be an increasingly unbalanced political blog. I think this article is a good example.
If you are going to highlight a significant drop in premium EV sales in NZ without mentioning things like the removal of the Clean Car Discount Scheme, in order to push a certain political narrative, it reflects very poorly on the standard of journalism here.
Undoubtably those sucked in by the "nazi" hoax will be rushing out to buy Volkswagen EV's instead.
Before WW2, the Volkwagen car was a scam created by the Nazi Party to take money off the public without ever delivering cars.
After WW2, it was a product to get the German economy back on its feet, arranged by the poms (primarily Major Ivan Hirst). Any effort to say that buying VWs supports fascism is, to put it mildly, inaccurate.
P.S. Don't buy a VW BEV. For the money, they are crap.
It’s entirely possible that a sales drop in cars is due to “his politics”, or rather, the reaction to them.
If he was rabidly left wing, nobody would even use that phrase, they’d likely say something like “his values”.
Left wing people (with lots of money) are certainly prone to conflating completely unrelated issues, and manufacturing non sequitors of vast complexity, so you may be right. Intentional damage, personalising issues and harassment are certainly a big part of their playbook, and they are completely beside themselves in the States at present. Victims of their own hyperbole.
Another part, I think is that the electric car market is losing its “mojo” is part of this as well, along with brand boredom. Model 3, and Model Y are unattractive cars- maybe slightly improved with a re-model recently. They evoke none of the excitement of ludicrous mode or a Model S Plaid.
I agree with one of the authors in comments, that the BYD Seal is really quite a beautiful car, so there are other better looking alternatives out there to Tesla. And BYD are battery industry leaders, as previously commented on.
Lastly, some perfectly fine electric car businesses, like Fisker have already disappeared, not due to “his politics” as far as I know.
But hey, now I think of it, his name does sound a bit German, so best he went broke in case he even considered being opposed to illegal mass migration, sanctioned by the State.
This is poor journalism and unlike Interest. Sales for Tesla in NZ have been on the decline since access to cheap "Sustainability" loans of 5yr at 0% became much harder to get from banks in 2023. This is due to most peoples houses not going up in real terms and the same for cashflow which results in less ability to put the car on the house. Couple that with removal of the EV rebate and then add on RUC's and you have a less compelling case for TCO when depreciation is taken into account.
In NZ, Tesla's are currently very much for those with plenty of disposable cash and wanting the latest tech. That's a small demographic within NZ as those with all the money tend to be older and prefer the comfort and familiarity of traditional OEM's.
Tesla ruined Model 3 sales in NZ by introducing a car without an indicator stalk. For a country with squillions of roundabouts that makes them very awkward to drive and hit the right button when trying to exit a roundabout with a wheel that is turned. In fact, that can be quite dangerous as the driver has to look down at the wheel at a crucial time.
Model Y sales are very impacted by the imminent arrival of the refreshed version. Thankfully, they haven't deleted the indicator stalk on this one and it will sell a lot of units for 2 quarters with pent up demand. After that it will be interesting to see if they can keep the volume selling Y going at a high runrate.
Elon has definitely put some people off, but he's been doing that for 15 years. You either like him for the incredible change he is creating in the world or loathe him for some of his personal views and actions.
Regardless of how you feel about the man, he has created 6 x multibillion companies and made a heap of shareholders Tesla millionaires. I'm one of those and am thankful for his relentless drive in pursuit of making meaningful change for the world. It will be fascinating to see how history remembers Elon Musk in decades to come.
Very thoughtful and insightful comments. And regarding history and legacy, many people will look back with chagrin and concern about the main proponents of culture wars, and advocates for censorship, and wonder why they didn’t do more to stop it. It’s anti-enlightenment.
What has he changed for the better in the world?
Tesla? There are a few electric cars around now. They really aren't that much better for the environment than ICE. Not like mass transit, which Elon specifically fights against. It was actually the founders of Tesla who developed most of the new technology needed (cooled batteries), and set the product roadmap. Musk came along and got rid of them and then went along with the original plan. Till of course the Semi and Cybertruck, those were clearly Musk ideas. His main gift to Tesla is the lying to investors to pump the stock to stratospheric levels (tesla bots, self driving, roadster). Elisabeth Holmes eat your heart out.
SpaceX? So there is a lot of LEO satellites whizzing around now. The effects on the environment and other space operations of increasing satellite count by 50x is still to be seen. Good for internet for warzones and farmers I guess? I use fiber. When is starship getting into orbit? How many starships has he blown up so far? Nasa would have never ever gotten away with so much failure. I heard they will need like 20 refuelling launches in space just to get to the moon. Nasa reused things too, it was called the space shuttle. Why is a Mars colony a good idea, if even possible?
Boring company? Made a short, tiny unsafe tunnel in Las Vegas, with full time taxi drivers required (because self driving cant be trusted to go through a tunnel/car park situation even on private property). Not quite the 'wormhole' promised.
Neuralink? Cruel experiments with inserting chips in monkey's brains seems to be the only output so far. What is he doing with that again?
xAI? OK, this company is as good as its multiple competitors I have heard. Doing the same thing.
Twitter? Well he managed to reduce its revenue by 80% in a very short time period. I guess he was fully in control of this company himself? Telling advertisers to go f**k themselves, and litigating against them didn't seem to work out in the long run. Who new?
Those "far-right", "pro Russia", "anti-immigrant" policies.
https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-04-12_afd-grundsatzp…
EV's have a limited market so sooner or later there will be market saturation. Pretty much nobody I know drives one and I wouldn't even look at one. Uptake is going to slow dramatically unless there is some sort of massive financial incentive to switch and that's now gone. I would expect a slow return to ICE after people get sick of EV's.
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