SAN FRANCISCO — Vibhor Chhabra once identified as a Tesla fan.
A decade ago, the 44-year-old Bay Area product executive saw the brand as a signifier that a driver wanted to fight climate change, electrify transportation or back CEO Elon Musk’s vision for a sustainable future. “You could make a statement while having a great car,” said Chhabra, who has owned three different Tesla vehicles and for a time held stock in the company.
But Chhabra is now shopping for a new vehicle — and looking elsewhere. Tesla’s brand “comes with a lot of baggage,” he said, and he no longer wants to be associated with Musk.
Chhabra is part of a movement that appears to be growing: Drivers who have bought or considered buying Tesla vehicles are now eyeing EVs from competitors, partially because of Musk’s polarizing persona or recent endorsement of former president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The backlash comes as Tesla is encountering more competition in the EV market as the biggest automakers electrify their lineups. The company has pioneered and dominated sales of electric vehicles in the United States and has an unrivaled charging network. But in the second quarter, Tesla saw its share of new EV sales drop below 50 percent for the first time, according to Cox Automotive, a 10 percentage point decline from a year earlier. Market-research firms have said Tesla’s reputation among consumers has been slipping in recent years, and the company’s stock price has declined 19.5 percent this year.
“There are a lot of credible studies out there that really do suggest that Elon Musk’s increasingly right-wing politics do alienate a significant number of shoppers,” said Ed Kim, president and chief analyst of AutoPacific, an automotive research and consulting firm.
Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
While Tesla’s Model Y is the top-selling car in the Golden State, a July report from the California New Car Dealers Association noted that Tesla new-car registrations in the state have been on a downward trajectory for three consecutive quarters.
Musk’s posts on his social media service X have become markedly more political in recent weeks. In addition to endorsing Trump, he has claimed that his estranged trans daughter was “killed by the woke mind virus,” prompting her to criticize him for spreading harmful stereotypes and allege that he mischaracterized her childhood. Musk has also shared misinformation on X, including last montha video of Vice President Kamala Harris that had been altered to make her appear to say she was a “deep-state puppet.”
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to consider buying an EV. A May survey from the Pew Research Center found that 45 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they were somewhat or very likely to seriously consider buying an EV compared with 13 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners. Only a small share of Americans already own EVs.
Although Musk’s alignment with Trump may risk alienating some of his current and potential customer base, it could open new opportunities by converting EV-skeptical conservatives into Tesla enthusiasts, some auto analysts and Tesla owners say.
“It’s very possible that Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politics may be helping to increase EV consideration among right-leaning people,” Kim said, citing early data collected by his firm. Shahar Silbershatz, CEO at market intelligence firm Caliber, said in an email that his company’s research shows that affinity for Tesla among conservatives has recently been rising. It’s unclear how that effect might help Tesla’s business.
Trump, who has often lambasted EVs in stump speeches, has recently changed his stance. “I am for electric cars. I have to be. Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Trump said at a rally Aug. 3. On Monday, Trump, praised Musk while sitting in a Cybertruck with social media influencer Adin Ross. The former president said in a social media post Tuesday that he would sit for an interview with Musk on Monday, which the Tesla CEO has indicated will be streamed on X.
Stan Clark first bought a Tesla in 2018 but says Musk’s recent partisanship is “making it more uncomfortable” to be a liberal driving one of his vehicles. “I don’t consider Trump an environmental candidate, and I don’t understand how somebody who started a company with an environmental mission could support that candidate,” said Clark, a 74-year-old in Santa Rosa, Calif. The retired architect has put down a deposit on an electric midsize SUV from rival California automaker Rivian, expected to arrive in 2026.
“If I want to make the move away from Tesla, I have an option,” Clark said, noting that there are a lot more competitors in the EV market than there were just a few years ago.
Calls to several dealerships in the Bay Area for brands that compete with Tesla suggested that Musk’s persona can help drive consumers to rivals’ forecourts. Esther Chun, manager at a Polestar dealership in San Jose, said in a phone interview that customers will frequently say things like: “I’m looking for an EV. I just don’t want a Tesla,” or simply “I don’t like Elon Musk.”
Chhabra and other EV drivers said they find it most concerning that Musk shares misleading content. “The problem is posting stuff that’s unreal,” Chhabra said. “When someone with the stature of Elon Musk does that, people believe it because it’s Elon Musk.”
Brands generally try to avoid weighing into cultural debates and politics because polarization is so strong in the United States, says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Many companies also try to ensure their brand isn’t strongly associated with a single individual, Calkins said, because public reputations can be volatile. But Musk has disdained conventional marketing for Tesla and positioned himself as the company’s public face. “It’s very hard to separate Elon Musk and Tesla,” Calkins said.
Musk cleaving his personal brand to Trump has also caused Tesla to lose business from some corporate clients. German drugstore chain Dirk Rossmann said this week that it would no longer purchase Teslas for its fleet. “Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax,” Raoul Rossmann, son of the company’s founder, said in the statement. “This attitude is in stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars.”
Matt Hiller, who lives in Hawaii, has turned his own experience of being turned off by Tesla into a robust side business. He and his wife were considering buying a Tesla but decided against it as they watched Musk post polarizing thoughts and misinformation on X.
“I didn’t want any association with him, and I kind of thought people who had these cars already must be feeling the way I was,” Hiller, 46, said in an interview with The Washington Post.
Hiller began selling bumper stickers on Etsy, Amazon and eBay for Tesla drivers who had fallen out of love with Musk. They bear slogans including “ANTI-ELON TESLA CLUB,” “SHUT UP ELON” and “I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE WE KNEW ELON WAS CRAZY.” Observant drivers can spot them on Bay Area freeways.
One of Hiller’s designs — a red circle with “ELON” in the middle and a line running through it — sold out after Musk endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Justin Demaree, an undecided voter who tries to steer clear of politics, isn’t fully with or against Musk’s views. Mostly, the 36-year-old content creator in the Orlando area who runs a YouTube channel called Bearded Tesla Guy, disagrees with making purchasing decisions based on a CEO’s perspective.
“In my view, you should be making your purchasing decisions on things that make your life better,” Demaree said in a phone interview while driving his Cybertruck to the beach.
The associations that come with driving a Tesla have shifted swiftly, said Jarret Fink, a 51-year-old retired law enforcement officer in California’s Sierra Foothills who runs a YouTube channel called Mountain Man Tesla. Fink bought his first vehicle from Musk’s company in 2020 and recalls his friends teasing him for being a “greenie,” because of its environmentalist associations. Now when he pulls up to the gun store in his town, he’ll sometimes find its parking lot packed only with Teslas, he said. “We all talk Tesla stuff — we talk about going to the track and how fast they are,” Fink said.
Fink, who identifies as an independent and plans to vote for Trump, thinks Musk’s endorsement of the former president can inspire conservatives to shift from gas-powered cars to electric ones. “I think now that Elon Musk has an appeal to conservatives … this is giving them that carrot to [say], ‘Well, my buddy bought one, and he’s not a liberal,’” Fink said.