by
New York
CNN
–
The sale of Tesla is in an unprecedented slide. Competitors are gaining ground quickly. There has been a lot of bad news for Tesla lately – but it is unclear whether the politics of his polarizing CEO, Elon Musk, is to blame.
What is known is that Tesla had his very first decrease in global sale last year, because sales fell by 1% compared to 2023. That would not be a huge decrease for many other companies, but it is remarkable at a company that 38 Had registered % and 40 % increases in turnover the previous two years – and with the enormous growth course in the past decade largely based on future growth.
On a smaller time scale, Tesla reported a sharp fall of 16% in the American turnover between December and January, but that is typical of the company, which seems to achieve a big push for the sale of the year to achieve his financial results on the entire year Target to be reached, followed by a decrease in January. For example, the turnover in January 2024 was 24% of the December 2023 turnover.
But Tesla is much more confronted than a CEO whose eyes have not only been to the federal government, but at least four other companies in which he is involved. And that makes it difficult to blame an element for the relatively rough seas of the company.
“It is still too early to see a (Musk -Bunction) in the Tesla figures,” said Stephanie Valdez Straty, director of the industry insights for Cox Automotive. “We cannot establish that polarization ensures that people buy or avoid a Tesla.”
Musk has become the focus of much attention for his movements to reform the federal government while he co-gastheer of OVAL Office press conferences with President Donald Trump. And the headwind for the sale of Tesla is realistic, from increased competition to the price of his cars.
Perhaps the biggest sign of shift in interest in owning a Telsa from S&P Global Mobility, which has sales data per state. It broke the data in ‘Blue States’, which means that voted for the Democratic candidate in the last four presidential elections, and ‘Red States’ where Republicans won four consecutive elections. And within each group of states it looked at the percentage of households that already had a Tesla who bought one when purchasing a new car.
In the blue states, the percentage of repeated Tesla buyers, from 72% in the last quarter of 2023 to 65% in the last quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, Tesla buyers in red states in red states repeat very light of 47.6% The end from 2023 to 48.2% during the last three months of last year.
The decrease in the loyalty percentage for Tesla owners in Blue States resulted in the lost of Tesla who lost about 1 percentage point of market share in those states, including some of the largest car markets in the country, such as California/
There is some extra anecdotal evidence that suggests that some buyers may have been eliminated by Musk’s political activism. Valdez Streaty points to the poll of potential car buyers this month through Morning Consult who demonstrates that almost 32% of American buyers would not consider buying a Tesla. That is a year ago of 27% in a Morning Consult Survey, and only 17% when the question asked in February 2021.
For comparison: only 16% of the potential buyers were almost certain or very likely to watch a Tesla before they buy the most recent survey, a figure that has not changed much in the past four years.
The rise of people who say they are crossing Tesla from their shopping list is not nearly as great as those who now express a negative view of Musk. A poll from January by Quinnipiac University showed that 53% of voters reject Musk that plays a prominent role in the Trump administration, compared to 39% approved. A poll in December 2022 discovered by the university that 36% of voters had a positive opinion about Musk and 35% had a negative position.
A factor that could indicate that a Tesla-based Musk play would be the number of Teslas used that hits the market because owners dump their cars. And more Teslas are currently being traded in, with an average of approximately 11,300 Teslas mentioned on Cox’s Autotrader, a record, in the fourth quarter of last year, an increase of 28% of the average of 8,800 a year earlier.
But even that has complicating factors – Cox said that a large part of the power of Teslas used car plots is probably due to the post-Pandemic increase in sales three years ago and the natural trend of some people who act in car after three years.
And there are many other factors that probably fall the new Tesla sales, in particular increased competition. Legacy Western car manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen have spent in recent years with rolling out new models of electric vehicles, with more constant on the road and sometimes with lower prices than Tesla.
For comparison: Tesla has made relatively modest changes to the main setup – the Model Y and Model 3 Sedans and Model X and Model Y SUVs. The only new model, the Cybertruck -Pick -Up, is an expensive niche vehicle that has only had modest sales.
There is also an important new competition from the Chinese Automaker BYD, who has almost caught Tesla in global EV sales and actually awarded it with a large margin in the fourth quarter of 2024. BYD takes the market share away from Tesla in China and Europe, but it still has to enter the American market.
Tesla’s sale in Germany fell by 59% compared to a year ago, according to the German federal motor transport authority. And just as Musk is an important proponent of Trump, he has become a controversial supporter of the extreme right -wing alternative to Germany (AfD) party.
Car purchases are among the largest and most carefully thoughtful purchases that consumers make other than housing. And they generally look mainly at price, options and observed value more than factors such as the politics of the CEO, said Ivan Drury, director of insights on the site of the auto-complaining site Edmunds.
“There is a huge strip of the popatone that doesn’t care about politics or it’s not great,” said Drury. “Many people will set aside their feelings about politics when making a purchase like this and focus on the price.”
