Love your Tesla but can’t stand Musk? Sales data says you’re not alone

It took Josh Rowe and his wife five years to fully electrify their home. They switched off the gas, added solar panels and batteries, and bought two Teslas.

But one moment, when two salutes from an emboldened billionaire on Donald Trump’s inauguration day ricocheted around the globe, has left Tesla owners like Rowe reeling.

Tesla owner Josh Rowe said he wouldn’t choose the brand if he were looking to buy an electric vehicle today.Credit: Chris Hopkins

After Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on January 20 twice performed the gestures – which he denied were Nazi salutes, but certainly looked a lot like them – new Tesla sales fell by 45 per cent in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Forbes reported this week that Musk has become $US111 billion ($175 billion) poorer than at his peak, losing $US1.5 billion on Tuesday alone, as Tesla stocks slumped.

The phenomenon is also playing out in Australia: fresh data from the Electric Vehicle Council shows 1592 new Teslas were delivered in February, a 71.9 per cent decrease on Tesla deliveries at the same time last year.

“The beauty of capitalism is you can express your opinion by not purchasing a billionaire’s products,” Rowe said.

Graffiti depicting Elon Musk in Bucharest.Credit: AP

“If we were to be choosing an EV today, we certainly wouldn’t be buying one from Tesla, because of who it’s owned by ... not only the way that Elon Musk behaved on that particular day, but just the behaviour towards regular American citizens … It’s just really poor behaviour.”

Environmental consultant Nelli Stevenson and her family – who had been waiting for Tesla prices to drop before trading in their car for an electric vehicle – said she would now look at alternatives.

“When he stood up and made that objectively ‘Sieg Heil’ Nazi salute, something just clicked in my head, and I thought, ‘I just cannot, cannot drive a Tesla,’” she said.

“I don’t care how affordable or fun they are ... None of that mattered any more. What used to be such a glamorous statement car, to me, actually became a really repulsive one.”

Environmental consultant Nelli Stevenson said she now finds Teslas repulsive.Credit: Tay Bassi Creative

Meanwhile, a cottage industry in anti-Musk memes has sprung up. Stickers – from Make This Car Less Embarrassing Again, to We Bought This Car Before We Knew Elon Was Crazy – have proliferated on Amazon, eBay, RedBubble and Etsy.

Activists placed ads on the London Underground this week representing Musk’s emphatic salute as the bottom half of a graph displaying a downwards Tesla share price trajectory. A separate advertising campaign in London also depicts Musk saluting and reads: “Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 Seconds. Tesla: The Swasticar”.

Peter Thorne, president of the Tesla Owners’ Club of Australia, said there was undeniably a “sentiment” issue at play but maintained his members chose to drive Teslas because they were like a computer on wheels.

“Everyone’s taking out their frustrations on the brand itself, which is, in my opinion, a little unfair because it’s a great brand.

“Nobody knows who the CEO of Volkswagen is or is digging into that history. You wouldn’t want to.” (Adolf Hitler was instrumental in the formation of Volkswagen in the 1930s after decreeing the need for an inexpensive and mass-produced “people’s car”.)

Complicating some drivers’ dismay about the Tesla chief’s behaviour and drive to distance themselves from his signature product are the relatively low resale prices Teslas currently attract – due to low consumer confidence more broadly and a proliferation in brands, as well as the Elon factor.

“We’ve had a couple of members who’ve cancelled their club memberships and said, ‘I don’t want to be associated with Tesla any more,’ ” Thorne said.

“And then you’ll get somebody say, ‘I want to sell my car’, but then, when they find out they’re going to lose about $10,000 doing that, they generally don’t do it.”

A protest sticker targeting Tesla and Elon Musk.Credit: @everyonehateselon_/Instagram)

Across Europe, Tesla deliveries fell by 50 per cent in February after Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany ahead of the German general election and threw the infamous salute on Inauguration Day. That fall was made even more stark by the overall 34 per cent rise in electric vehicle sales across Europe.

Mark Edwards, a long-term Tesla driver and significant shareholder, said it was frustrating to see Musk damaging the brand’s credibility: “I believe the company’s got great engineers and products; it’s just got an idiot at the top.”

Thorne maintains the sales drop is likely to be a temporary phenomenon and it’s possible to separate the product from Tesla’s divisive chief executive.

A poster at a bus stop in London.Credit: @everyonehateselon_/Instagram)

“I’m very pro-Tesla – the product itself, not really the company,” he said.

“I made my money out of sustainability, running one of Australia’s largest renewable energy businesses, so I’ve always bought into renewables. These cars are just such a direct extension of that.”

Credit: Matt Golding

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