[hadtodoit]

This might come as a shock to you but most people do not care what the political opinions or behavior of a car manufacturer's CEO are. Likewise the internet does not at all reflect the views of your average person, and I would wager that despite Tesla fanatics being very aware of Musk and his eccentric behavior, most Tesla owners moving forward won't even know or care who the CEO is as they rollout to mass market. This won't make a dent in his customer base. Musk is beyond reproach at this point, his "fuck you" warchest is too big.

[epistasis]

A lot of Tesla's customers came to it because of the politics of buying a car that doesn't use gasoline.

Now that other companies are finally catching up (or at least I hope they do), those same customers will have choices. Tesla has really been the only long-range choice, so of course they are going to dominate. They also make a really good car, that makes their customers happy.

Marketing and branding have huge impacts on a lot of car purchases. If Musk narrows his brand appeal by contributing to the US's partisan divide, that has a lot of potential to dent his consumer base. How many of those expensive trucks out there are ever used for truck things? So many car purchases are about image! (Though obviously not all.)