At the weekend I overheard a conversation between two men discussing Tesla.
The gist was they’d both ditched plans to buy a Tesla car.
Although they both wanted an EV they didn’t want to buy anything associated with the company’s owner – and the world’s richest man – Elon Musk.
A sample size of two people barely constitutes a scientific study but they’re not the only ones thinking like this.
In Q1 2025, the electric car manufacturer delivered almost 337,000 electric vehicles – down 13 per cent a year ago.
Tesla sales have dropped to a three-year low, with many blaming a growing backlash against Musk as the reason why.
‘Don’t Buy A Tesla’ – taken from Led By Donkeys X account
The self-styled tech bro’s increasingly public role in President Trump’s administration, overseeing his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has coincided with Tesla’s falling sales and share price.
Tesla’s share price currently stands a $252 – almost half of the $479 figure on December 17th, 2024.
Trump’s tariffs are bad for business – and Musk has a lot of businesses that rely on global supply chains for their raw materials.
Hardly surprising then that there’s growing speculation that Musk’s days in Trump’s administration could be numbered.
As ‘Tesla Takedown’ protests are popping up at dealerships across the US and Europe – including London over the weekend – a lot of people think Musk’s brand is now toxic.
The problem for Musk is we’ve been here before with Twitter / X.
It was back in 2022 that the serial entrepreneur bought Twitter for $44bn, tweeting ‘the bird is freed’.
He said for the social media platform to deserve public trust it had to be ‘politically neutral’.
After firing a number of top executives, he quickly rebranded to X, ditching the iconic blue bird logo.
Before long, users complained that that their feed was full of disinformation and far-right theories.
The algorithms were also tweaked in favour of Musk, who now has 219 million followers.
Under his watch, the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer, Andrew Tate, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, were allowed to return to the social media platform.
When companies suspended their advertising he told them they could ‘go f**k yourself’ in a bizarre interview.
Musk also threw his collective voice and fortune behind getting Trump re-elected as US President.
So where are we now? Millions of users have left X while others are posting much more infrequently.
‘Social media firms may need tighter regulation’ – Andy Burnham
Gary Neville, who has 5.4m followers on X, has posted twice since December 2nd, 2024!
The irony is that the platform which Musk built – X – is now being used to attack his cash cow – Tesla.
The British campaign group, Led By Donkeys, is using its X account to showcase the thousands of people who are ditching Tesla, attracting millions of impressions.
Musk may still be the world’s richest person, with an estimated wealth of $342bn, but the performance of Tesla and X also highlight he’s probably also the most toxic.