I agree somewhat. But some lost sales were due to emerging cheaper EV competition methinks.
Here’s what the data shows:
1. Before Oct. 2022: Counties with more Democrats showed an increasing preference for Teslas compared to Republican counties. This makes sense, as we know EV adoption has historically been higher among liberal-leaning buyers. 2. After Oct. 2022: The trend dramatically reverses. As Musk’s political activities—including “relaxed content moderating of far-right and extremist voices” and massive campaign contributions—ramped up, Democratic-leaning counties began “shifting away from Tesla purchases”.
https://insideevs.com/news/777123/musk-tesla-1-million-sales/ A new study by Yale scholars at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reveals just how much of an impact that reputation had on Tesla’s sales. As it turns out, since Musk bought Twitter, his political meddling has cost Tesla more than a million vehicle sales while also boosting the number of EVs and hybrids sold by competitors.
For sure, it is interesting to try to determine how many buyers turned away from Tesla because of Elon Musk’s extremist behavior. However, the study is not complete. It does not evaluate how many fewer sales Tesla will gain due to Republicans, including Donald Trump, killing the US EV tax credit. That’s another big chunk of sales, and we haven’t even seen the ramifications of that yet since the tax credit ended less than a month ago.
Beyond vehicle sales, there’s the matter of the Trump administration completely ignoring fuel efficiency requirements and taking away the opportunity for Tesla to sell regulatory credits to lagging automakers in the US. That may not limit Tesla’s sales, but it does hurt its finances!
We actually have no idea how many sales Tesla has lost due to Elon Musk’s far-right-wing activities and statements, because there are other factors at play as well — a somewhat stale product lineup, growing competition, brand saturation (too many people who would buy a Tesla already having bought a Tesla), bad press for other reasons, etc. That said, the 1 million to 1.26 million vehicle estimate does sound about right on the surface. But that’s before the coming sales hit from losing the US EV tax credit.
A valid point about the ending of the EV tax credit.
I haven’t read the study in detail, but it’s comparing relative sales between Dem and Rep districts, andthe authors address this directly:
Importantly, we note that our identifying assumptions so far do not
rule out non-Musk related factors leading to the reduced Tesla sales we observe in the raw data, and our conclusion about a causal effect on the change in relative preferences holds as long as any non-Musk related factors affect Democrats and Republicans in the same way.
and also points out:
Musk’s partisan activities also increased the sales of other automakers’ electric and hybrid vehicles 17-22% because of substitution
Sure. Happens all the time. Look at Bud Light sales that tanked for no reason except AB sent a case of personalized Bud Light to a transgender influencer.
People stopped shopping at Target because rainbows in the aisles, which they found (?) offensive.
I wasn’t going to buy a Tesla because I didn’t like the square screen, no knobs approach, but Musk’s antics sealed the deal. I was lucky that other options came on line at about the time I was making a decision, and I went with Hyundai. With only a slight change in the timeline (“I bought this car before Elon went nuts” bumper sticker) I might have bought a Tesla instead.
