I honestly think most people don't care. Especially to cause a 41% drop.. If someone calls me a nazi in the LIDL car park for driving a Tesla I'd honestly think it's because of my shiny bald head, not the car.
But what if you were sorta on the fence about getting an electric car anyway?
What if you have a diesel car today, and getting another is the familiar, low-risk, low-cost option - whereas getting an EV is the responsible, ethical, do-your-bit-to-make-the-world-a-better-place option?
When the EV comes with a side order of nazi salutes at the presidential inauguration - it's no longer the choice that makes the world a better place.
Kinda, sorta yeah. If I'm split between a Tesla and SOMETHING ELSE, be it an electric MG, CNG Golf, Petrol MX-5 or Diesel A3 it'd play a role but that's too much of an edge case for 41% (of course it's a combination of things but still)
Teslas are unique enough to where it feels like if you want a Tesla, you want a Tesla. It's not like deciding between the Audi, Skoda, VW or Seat trim of the 90% same car when you want a normal ICE econobox.
5 years ago maybe. But no-one believes the self-driving promises any more, every car has screens instead of buttons now, and wireless updates are not something that people care about at all, especially if those updates just break stuff that used to work perfectly (eg. ultrasound parking sensors).
What was really unique about Tesla was that they had this image of a technologically advanced automaker that will stop climate change and lead us into a clean energy utopia. It was a fancy car you could buy without a bad conscience.
But with the Cybertruck it's clear they are leading us into an electrified Mad Max world instead. Kinda obvious in retrospect that a guy selling flame throwers is not about peace love and happiness....
I can’t speak for most people, of course, but in my environment, which consists of above average wealthy people interested in technology and the environment - i.e., your core Tesla target audience - nobody wants to be associated with Elon Musk in any way anymore. A friend sold a Tesla to get an electric Porsche two years ago, just because of Elon.
It’s usually me who still defends his skills as a CEO, but I also would never buy a Tesla car. I actually don’t think the competition is that strong, but I can’t be associated with a guy who makes a gesture eerily similar to a Heil Hitler at Trumps inauguration. No car can be that nice.
Edit: I’m from Munich, BMW hometown, live in Stockholm and have many friends in London. Interestingly I felt his reputation in my London circles fell even before it did in Germany and Sweden.
I get the dislike for Musk politically but I guess I'm just too broke or something to understand it affecting purchasing decisions that much.
When I buy something I usually look at the product, company history of fucking over consumers and price. I don't really care if the CEO/CTO/CFO/COO/owner was caught at every Diddy and Epstein party to date when it comes to my purchasing decision if his company's product is the best fit.
It only plays a role if I have two equally good products to decide between.
Especially for expensive purchases since I'm not about to burn even a weekly salary to not increase some executive I dislike's worth by the equivalent to him of a prechewed piece of store brand gum.
I think the environment in which you grew up have an impact on that kind of choices. We were told basically all our life, especially during the socdem "third way" era, that we should vote with our wallet if we weren't happy. And the moment we started earning money, we started doing that. Then the same idiots who kept saying "vote with your wallet" suddenly started crying about "cancel culture".
My generation was taught to vote with their wallet more than the previous ones, and probably it is the reason behind Tesla declining sales. Some of use are voting him out.
PS: And by the way, people who ever said "vote with your wallet" or something of that effect like "consumers have made their choice", and _then_ complained about cancel culture, and not made the link themselves are idiots.
Cancel culture is basically boycotting, unless it's different in the US?
To be more precise, I thought cancel culture is what you get when you boycott in a high information, attention economy. I used to boycott lactalis. I'm now able to find all of it's offshot brands, that I now boycott too. They have a few years ago, pushed a paid promotion to national influencers. I blocked them and all their channels. I am voting with my wallet and my attention.
Unless i missed the point of 'cancelling', isn't it just that boycott and block?
Not buying from companies you disagree with is massively different from trying to get people sacked or otherwise remove their source of income (e.g. Roseanne Barr, JK Rowling, Brian Leach, Christian Webb)
You're most likely right. I grew up in eastern europe where essentially up until around my birth/shortly after the fall of communism there was nothing to buy outside of necessities anyway so "vote with your wallet" wasn't a topic really. You even needed connections to get basic construction materials like sand, wood and cement. The lesson for my generation was "Study so you don't (have to) work.".
What if you have a diesel car today, and getting another is the familiar, low-risk, low-cost option - whereas getting an EV is the responsible, ethical, do-your-bit-to-make-the-world-a-better-place option?
When the EV comes with a side order of nazi salutes at the presidential inauguration - it's no longer the choice that makes the world a better place.