As a die-hard sustainability nerd whose house is carbon-negative, I bought a Tesla in 2016 when it was the only real electric car option with a national charging network, and Elon Musk was (or at least seemed to be) a progressive-minded innovator and not the fascist creep he is today.
Unlike many other Tesla owners, I’m not getting rid of it. It wouldn’t be financially or environmentally responsible for me to buy a new car before I run this one into the ground. It only has 70,000 miles on it, most of them tallied while schlepping kids to their activities, and I’m pretty much done with that. (My 21-year-old is long gone, and my 18-year-old will graduate high school in June).
In other words, I may have this car for another 10 years.
That doesn’t mean Tesla isn’t trying to get me to upgrade. With its new buyer pool shrinking due to increasing backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to destroy the government on Donald Trump’s behalf, the electric vehicle company is going back to its old customers in hopes of goosing sales among an existing fan base.
“This is the first month of the quarter and they're already upping incentives? I got two texts and a call from a sales agent already last week,” one Reddit user posted. “One wonders if things aren't looking quite so rosy at the moment…”
I got similarly hit up. Here’s one of the texts—and my response:
Zero-percent financing in this inflationary environment, when the average interest rate for a new car loan hovers at around 7%, according to Edmunds, is a massive discount. If I was in the market for a new car, I might even be tempted … but not by this company.
The problem for Tesla is that its existing customer base is disproportionately made up of California liberals and their counterparts in other progressive U.S. pockets—and they’re no longer fans.
In fact, Tesla’s popularity is at a nine-year low, according to YouGov data, and has cratered among liberals—the very people that buy the bulk of electric cars.
And Tesla wants to pretend they don’t know why.
In its infinite corporate wisdom, Tesla emailed me a survey to gauge whether I’d be interested in buying another Tesla. It was fun to fill out, but also shows how detached from reality the company remains. Check it out:
After asking whether I planned to buy another Tesla and receiving my “no” reply, the survey asked about my “primary reason for not purchasing a Tesla.” It offered 13 options, and … not a single one was “Elon Musk.”
I went with the option that most closely gets at the real reason Tesla’s sales numbers are falling—“The Tesla brand.” When asked for more info, I wrote: “Elon Musk. Funny how you don't include him in your options, given how clearly he's a major reason Tesla's sales have hit rock bottom.” (I didn’t even mention how the company’s stock has tanked, despite Trump turning the White House lawn into a car dealership for his buddy Elon on March 11.)
A recent poll found that just 15% of conservatives were “seriously interested” in buying an EV, and 44% said they would “probably never” buy one. Among liberals, 27% were seriously interested, and just 21% said they would never buy one. Add in challenges such as the lack of charging infrastructure in Republican-heavy rural areas, and it’s simply impossible for Tesla to overcome the loss of its progressive customer base.
“Alexander Edwards, the head of Strategic Vision, a company that surveys new vehicle buyers, has been asking Tesla buyers about their political affiliations for the last decade,” reported NPR. “Last year, for the first time the data showed that the average Tesla buyer was more likely to be a Republican than a Democrat. But that wasn't because Republican purchases were surging; it was because Democrats were fleeing the brand.”
Tesla wants to play dumb. That survey they sent out isn’t going to tell them anything different, no matter how much they try to pretend Musk isn’t the reason for the company’s ongoing demise.
The only question is whether Tesla’s senior management will ever show Musk and the Tesla board the results.
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