“Part of the population is not happy with his views, his political activism,” said Jato senior analyst Felipe Munoz who had shrugged off the boycott threat earlier this year, but is now having second thoughts.
Many Tesla buyers used to be wealthy, environmentally-conscious professionals, often liberal, who were attracted to Musk’s talk about how his EVs could help save the planet from fossil-fuel destruction. Not anymore.
“I used to be adored by the left,” Musk said in an interview with Tucker Carlson on February 18 as his stock was halfway through a nearly 30% plunge for the month. “Less so these days.”
Musk doubles down
His decision to spend $270 million on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and publicly back him was risky enough for his business. Then he doubled down, pursuing a slash-and-burn strategy as head of Trump’s government efficiency team and taking his political revolution and incendiary talk abroad.
He has backed the far-right, pro-Russian, anti-Muslim party in Germany, called the British prime minister an “evil tyrant” who runs a “police state,” and stated recently about a U.S. neighbour and major Tesla market, “Canada is not a real country.” The backlash has been fierce.
Tesla showrooms in the U.S. have been besieged by protesters, its vehicles vandalized and bumper stickers appearing on its cars with sayings such as, “I bought it before Elon went nuts.”
An effigy of Musk was hung in Milan and image of him doing a straight-arm salute projected on a Tesla factory outside Berlin. In London, a bus stop poster of him above the word “swasticars” lit up social media. A Polish government minister called for a Tesla boycott.
Tesla customers react
“I will not buy a Tesla again,” said Jens Fischer, a 50-year-old microscope salesman in Witten, Germany, who thinks Musk is “destabilizing democracy” and has slapped one of those “Elon went nuts” stickers on his Model 3. “I’d sell if I got a good offer.”