(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . NYT survey: Musk's politics alienating many potential buyers; likely linked to slumping Tesla sales [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-02 The New York Times is reporting today that the results of a recent Times questionnaire, plus discussions with analysts, show that Elon Musk’s far-right politics are alienating a notable chunk of potential Tesla buyers — and are a likely contributor to the company’s current slumping sales. This is probably not shocking to most of us here, but it’s notable to me that the Times is reporting this so bluntly. I also find the newspaper’s just-released questionnaire results worth noting. As background, the Times points to many serious problems that Tesla is currently facing, including: The company reported today that its global sales in the second quarter fell 4.8 percent from the same period a year earlier. Tesla saw an 8.5 percent drop in sales in the first three months of the year . first three months of the year Tesla dropped to 63rd place in the 2024 Axios Harris Poll 100 , which asked respondents about their views on corporate brands. That’s down from eighth place in 2021 — quite a fall. To help understand what’s behind Tesla’s current woes, the New York Times invited car owners to respond to a questionnaire on The New York Times’s website about whether Musk’s behavior affected their views of Tesla. It received more than 7,500 responses, and the Times reports that “a vast majority of the readers who responded to the questionnaire were critical of Mr. Musk.” Some of the more than 7,500 people who responded to The Times’s questionnaire said they were offended by what they perceived as antisemitism from Mr. Musk, which he denies. Some were upset by the way Mr. Musk has managed Twitter, now called X, since he bought the company in 2022. He fired thousands of employees and removed guardrails on content shared on the social media platform. His increasingly friendly relations with former President Donald J. Trump and other conservative personalities were also cited as concerns. “You’re basically driving around a giant red MAGA hat,” said Aaron Shepherd, a product designer at Microsoft in Seattle who said he was planning to buy an electric Volkswagen ID.4 instead of a Tesla. Many respondents also cited concerns related to racism and racial discrimination. Some car owners’ concerns went beyond Mr. Musk’s political statements. They cited accusations of racial discrimination at Tesla factories, or the perception that he has allowed racist content to flourish on X. Tesla has denied that it tolerates discrimination at its factories. “My mother was seriously debating buying a Tesla,” said Achidi Ndifang, who works in information technology in Baltimore. “As a Black person, I felt like it would be an insult for my mother to drive a Tesla.” The Times highlights a rather obvious (to me) problem for Tesla that is highlighted by the survey results: Musk’s polarizing political statements and actions are alienating liberal and left-leaning customers who are much more likely to buy battery-powered cars than conservatives are, The paper notes that “there is little evidence that Mr. Musk’s turn to the right has attracted more conservatives to buy Teslas.” In fact, 77 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters said this year that they were not interested in battery-powered cars, up from 70 percent who said the same last year, according to the Pew Research Center. By comparison, just 40 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning voters in that same Pew poll said that they were not interested in battery-powered cars. “He might be winning some people who like his positions,” said Greg Silverman, the global director of brand economics at Interbrand, a consulting firm that advises clients on marketing strategies. But, he added, the odds that Mr. Musk is attracting more customers rather than pushing them away “are very low.” At a time when I see our country moving in troubling directions for our democracy and our society, I know that one thing I can still control is how I spend my money in ways that align with my beliefs and values. I currently have a 10-year-old gas-powered car with very low mileage (I don’t drive it very much). I don't expect to be buying a new car in the immediate future, but at some point I know I’ll need a new car and I plan for it to be an EV. And when that time comes, I know for sure that I will NOT buy a Tesla. It’s encouraging to see that so many other people are feeling the same way. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/2/2250653/-NYT-Musk-s-politics-are-alienating-many-potential-buyers-likely-linked-to-slumping-Tesla-sales?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/