With Tesla’s bare bones reporting it is hard to know all the numbers but this is a peculiar situation where the EV buying population is not at all representative of the American public. In all the available data people who would consider an EVs are we wealthier, more educated and more democratic. Even if he is only alienating 10% of Americans, that 10% represents something like 15% of potential EV buyers.
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Yup,
Musk’s approval rating with democrats is at 6%.
Tesla’s net favorability with Democrats is at -15%
If you majorly piss off your core market, you will lose sales, it’s not rocket science, its a far more obvious reason for decline than market saturation, when the market is otherwise growing.
It was clearly the same with Bud Light, numbers don’t drop like that (30% in 2-3 weeks) due to some kind of instant market saturation, or natural change in consumers’ buying patterns
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Rivian sold 30% less. Mercedes as well.
The companies that did well did so on the back of huge discounts. GM with the $100/month equinox and blazers…Ford with majorly discounted Mach-E and Lightning’s compared to a year ago
You have to look at how automakers have priced cars 12 months ago compared to now. The ones that raised prices have lower sales. The ones that lowered prices saw growth
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You can distill it down even further. We are essentially talking about California.
California basically has more EVs than the rest of country combined.
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Tesla has very much joined other brands on slashing costs and offering attractive lease and financing terms
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Yep, MY and 3 are pretty good deals. But some on here know the pretzel position pretty well for arguing, even when trend lines and data show what actually happened.
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Not that different from the 2024 deals. It’s been the usual stuff with Tesla. Start the quarter with no discounts. And then ramp up the deals in the last 2 months of the quarter. If anything in Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024 Model 3 prices went up since last year (move to Highland)…Model Y was being phased out and factory went through temporary shut down…S/X price increased $5k.
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You seem to be the only person in the world who doesn’t think Musk has harmed the Tesla brand at this point, even he has admitted it, the President did a infomercial on the white house lawn due to it 
94% of his previous largest buying segment actively disapproves of him. There are large scale protests outside of his showrooms.
Your mental gymnastics are a very weird type of copium
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Mass formation psychosis is a hell of a drug. 
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So is mass denialism psychosis.
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What’s there to cope about? I’m not saying Elon hasn’t harmed Tesla. I’m also not saying that no growth is a good thing…
I’m saying the whole EV market is bad, some OEMs are doing worse than Tesla…some OEMs (like GM) that are giving cars away at a loss, are showing growing numbers…but so what? It’s fake. EVs are all too expensive and the market is refusing to pay up.
Feel free to show me one company that has raised prices and is still showing growth in the EV market. Like I said, prime example are Rivian and Mercedes. The crazy EQ lease deals from 12 months ago are gone, Rivian lease deals have also gotten terrible in Q1. Both are down 30% YoY
Can we all just agree that before Elon donned a MAGA hat, he sucked and Tesla sucked. Then after he donned a red hat… Elon still sucked and Tesla still sucks.
I don’t understand why there has to be this concept that Elon “harmed” the Tesla brand in recent times. Elon always sucked. It’s strange some people overlooked how much he sucked before, but now realize he sucks today and think something bad happened.
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While I agree with you that Tesla sucked before and after, I think you underestimate how Elon has decimated Tesla brand. To people who don’t pay attention, the first brand they will buy if they want an EV is tesla. It’s basically the benchmark. Some don’t even shop around and just get Tesla. With the current situation, those people will wrote off tesla and look around instead, it’s a good thing since they can get a better car.
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The “harm” imo is more-so the lack of attention to the company and it’s products, the “yes-man” nature of the board…etc…years of development for a meme (cybertruck) which has no future potential. Instead of improving the quality and usability of the existing cars…or making a true 7 seater SUV…or battery improvements. All the fast innovation at Tesla basically stopped after the 3/Y. Since then, it’s been how do we continue to milk our old products. Optimize and Reduce costs above all else.
The political aspect I believe is overblown…yes some people are “anti-Tesla” now but i don’t think it’s a meaningful amount of damage. Like someone else pointed out. 10% drop in sales is hardly evidence that NO ONE will buy a Tesla anymore.
The products speak for themselves…they are stale, and Tesla has gotten lazy and just continue to use end of quarter discounts/incentives to move inventory
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They are effectively paying him billions while he works full time at DOGE and Twitter. If Tesla was still based in Delaware this board would be in a lot of trouble. How do you defend paying him billions of dollars while he is focused on a different job? That’s weird. No independent board would ever allow that.
As for the level of harm to Tesla from Musk’s politics it’s pretty clear that one’s opinion is basically linked to their personal political beliefs. Just an inverse of the bud light situation.
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Ya it’s just a tired brand which has released no new products and continues to claim FSD will someday work
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Don’t forget their cars are rickety shitboxes, their service centers are led by Elon-Wannabies (jerk assholes who have a superiority complex), and they continue to bilk billions on Government policies that seem to have a nebulous benefit for the people footing the bill.
I wish the Right and Left would unite in the common thread that Tesla sucks and Elon sucks. Instead of making it seem like it’s a partisan issue to dislike Tesla.
When half my threads on this site were being landfilled by @z0lt3c , people were calling me some Republican claiming I hated his EVs and hated the company because I was voting Red.
Then when I dunk on Elon now people call me some Democrat since only Dems hate Tesla now.
Tesla and Elon both just suck. Unfortunately the previous discourse that would even hint at Tesla being bad got landfilled / pigeonholed because those that could control the narrative somehow elevated Elon and Tesla on an undeserved pedestal.
Elon isn’t hurting Tesla with some DOGE bullshit or his choice of hat. Elon always sucked. What has changed now is the huge pool of people who used to shield anti-Tesla sentiment are now gone.
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Whether you thought he sucked before or after donning a MAGA hat there were plenty who didn’t, plenty who loved him, loved his cars, loved his rockets, loved his green vision, maybe even loved his perceived politics.
His recent political positions have without doubt affected the Tesla brand, you may have been wise to it (to be honest to add your main character views to mine, I was with you !) y(our) thoughts don’t matter though, many people have had their eyes opened and don’t like it and wont buy the cars any more
Anecdotally I know many, INCLUDING ME, who owns one, my wife who tried to defend him long before he went FULL MAGA, while I was calling him a biff, who wants now to sell it… due to him.
She’s a save the earth type, who loved owning a Tesla for the feel smug factor, who now wants to sell it, despite loving the car despite now him.
ELON IS VERY MUCH HURTING TESLA, just because you were cleverer than others, realising he sucks, doesn’t mean others were late to the party in this realization due to his recent, overt actions.
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Well, finally TESLA did it… charge over 80% in a congested charger and get charged by the minute 
$0.75/min
Going to Waikiki again Apr 28th-May 1st and reserved a Tesla $50 for a day… they added another 12 chargers to this area, the one on first level has 6 chargers only-this one is brand new on 2nd floor of the Mall garage…
All the Tesla hate seems to make used teslas a good bargain. lol
Maybe getting a used MY or M3 is a hack now.