Would-be Tesla buyers snub company as Musk's reputation dips
Mon, Apr 1, 2024
Caliber's "consideration score" for Tesla, provided exclusively to Reuters, fell to 31% in February, less than half its high of 70% in November 2021 when it started tracking consumer interest in the brand.
Tesla's consideration score fell 8 percentage points from January alone even as Caliber's scores for Mercedes, BMW and Audi, which produce gas as well as EV models, inched up during that same period, reaching 44-47%.
Reuters spoke to five marketing, polling and car experts who said controversies surrounding Musk's increasingly right-wing politics and public statements are weighing on Tesla's brand and demand.
"It is hard enough to win sales without getting into politics," said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance found Tesla's reputation fell in 2023 in the United States, the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, and Australia. Tesla's reputation did not suffer in China, where access to news on the company and its CEO may have been limited, and Germany.
Kat Beyer, a climate activist in Wisconsin, said
she wanted to avoid Tesla because of Musk's support for Republicans, but wound up buying a Model Y last year because of a lack of EVs with reliable charging infrastructure.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla...100751111.html
So it really is about politics when it comes to one particular group.
I guess since Musk is now a right-wing zellot I should run right out and buy a Tesla. When Pigs fly.
