Despite his decades of work pushing consumers to buy electric vehicles as a means to combat climate change, some aren’t buying what Elon Musk is selling anymore, especially when it comes to his cars.
Despite being a giant in the electric vehicle space for more than a decade, Tesla may soon be in hot water as many aren’t as willing to pay premium prices for electric vehicles, when the company’s owner and CEO is pushing deeper into conservative politics.
This potential plight for Musk comes as the electric vehicle superhouse announced that sales fell 1% in 2024 when compared to the year prior, the first annual sales decline for the company in 12 years.
The fall comes from a drop in U.S. purchases, as Tesla noted that its global EV sales rose by 7.3% last year.
Now, Wall Street analysts are worried about Musk’s political activities and the alienation of potential customers that could come as an effect.
In a note from Feb. 19, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote that since Trump’s inauguration, Tesla stock has fallen 17% with a “visible perceived downside impact” of Musk’s involvement in the White House.
And Ives isn’t alone in his assessment.
“It would seem that potential consumers for Tesla EVs might be turning away from the company because they don’t appreciate Elon Musk’s close relationship to President Trump and the administration’s tariff policies,” Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist at Jonestrading, shared with CBS MoneyWatch.
But, the issue isn’t only a failure to sell to American consumers, as Tesla’s EV sales fell by 45% in Europe last month. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, Tesla sold 9,945 vehicles in Europe in January, down 45% from last year’s 18,161.
Experts have accredited the drop in sales to consumers choosing cheaper competitors and overall car sales falling but also noted that it could be a result of Musk’s comments around European politics, The Guardian reported.
Musk has been a common topic of discussion since he first began supporting Trump last summer after the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt.
In a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, respondents were asked their thoughts on Musk, to which he received a 44% favorable and a 44% unfavorable rating.
The billionaire has been working with Trump to slash federal spending and shrink the government as he continues to try and eliminate workers who are deemed unnecessary. This has included Musk pushing Trump’s efforts to return workers to the office, saying those who didn’t return by this week would also be placed on administrative leave.
Musk also made headlines over the weekend after he shared that all government employees were to respond to a mass email listing what they accomplished at work last week. He said that failure to comply would be taken as resignation.
Tesla has not responded to questions about Musk’s potential impact on the company’s sales.