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Elon Musk's reputation is falling, and with it Tesla
According to Caliber, a company that monitors the reputation of global corporations, Elon Musk's controversial performance and mildly unusual behavior in recent years have most likely had a significant impact on Tesla's sales decline.
Reuters published the data of a recent survey in which Caliber found that only 31 percent of those who had the opportunity would buy Tesla's services or products today. In November 2021, when Tesla recorded the highest result, 70 percent, as part of this same survey, Musk's influence was not yet so great. This January alone, Tesla's reputation fell by 8 percent. For comparison, we can say that rivals in the field of sales of electric vehicles, such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes, increased their results or reputation and all scored between 44 and 47 percent.
A separate survey by analysts at CivicScience, which monitors the approval of Musk by American consumers, shows that currently 42 percent of participants do not support Musk. When he announced the purchase of Twitter in April 2022, this number was 32 percent. Since then, Tesla's CEO has been embroiled in numerous scandals, from such and other practices related to X, to frequent communication about conspiracy theories and other examples of harmful rhetoric.
Caliber claims that 83 percent of Americans surveyed associated Tesla with Musk, while Caliber CEO Shahar Silbershatz told Reuters that "it's very likely that Musk himself is contributing to the fall in reputation." Additional data provided to Reuters by brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance shows a similar decline in Tesla's reputation among consumers in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
If Musk's polarizing behavior affects Tesla's sales, it will be one of the key factors for the underperformance this year. The company warned back in January that their growth in 2024 "may be much lower" than last year. They are currently preparing their line of vehicles for 2025. Tesla is also facing increasing competition from electric vehicle providers such as Rivian and China's BYD. In their first-quarter production report, they attributed the decline in sales to production delays and supply disruptions.
Bloomberg is more as for years looking for similar connections between Musk's declining reputation and the volatile price of Tesla's shares. Since then, Musk has done practically nothing for his personality; useful.
