Three things are no secret: 1) Elon Musk benefits more than any other individual from Tesla’s success, 2) Elon Musk has gotten extremely involved in political matters (emphasis on “extremely”), and 3) many people won’t buy Tesla products because of those first two facts.
New research from JW Surety Bonds finds that 1 out of 4 Americans “avoid Tesla’s technology due to their opinions on Elon Musk.” That’s a full quarter of the US public that won’t consider great electric vehicles, including the best selling vehicle in the world, because of Musk’s highly abnormal involvement in US politics.
Before we get to more of the research, it should also be noted that Musk has been getting more and more involved, including in highly abnormal and extremely right-wing ways, in European politics — in the UK, Italy, Germany, and other major auto markets. Without a doubt, this is starting to impact consumer behavior in Europe as well.
I can’t think of anything else as significant in consumer product sales. Yes, there are some other highly politically engaged business people, but they aren’t so directly involved or tied to significant mass-market products. (I’m not counting the MyPillow guy, for example.) There are founders and CEOs of major corporations who are known political actors, but not so openly and loudly that they draw widely significant scrutiny or tarnish the brand they represent.
If you are not self aware enough to be embarrassed that you are driving a cybertruck do not worry, everyone who sees you driving it is embarrassed for you.
Cybertruck drivers must truly believe that everyone around them is so happy and impressed. As they look in at all other drivers on the road, they all have huge, incredulous smiles on their faces… Of course it’s fully because everyone they are seeing is mid laugh when they see the jackass that dropped over $100k on that divorced dad tramp stamp of a car. So people burst out laughing at that rusty death machine that permanently breaks if you take it through the carwash. The owners have trouble reading emotion in faces though, so they must just feel like a million bucks as they arrive home, grab the items they went to pickup at the store (ED meditation and father’s day greeting cards they are forging to send to themselves) and the trunk severs their coke pinkie with the long fingernail.