new York
Cnn
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Tesla sales are in an unprecedented slide. Competitors quickly gain ground. There are a lot of bad news for Tesla lately – but it is not clear if the policy of her polarizing CEO, Elon Musk, is to blame.
What we know is that Tesla had her very first drop in world sales last year, because sales dropped by 1% compared to 2023. It would not be a huge drop for many others companies, but it is notable in a company that had recorded 38 the% and 40% increase sales in the previous two years – and with the massive growth in the course of its shares over the past decade has largely supported the future growth.
On a smaller time scale, Tesla reported a sharp drop of 16% of American sales between December and January, but it is typical for the company, which seems to be doing significant pressure for end -of -year sales To achieve its financial results for the full year Target, followed by a drop in January. Sales in January 2024, for example, were in the process of 24% compared to its sales in December 2023.
But Tesla faces much more than a CEO whose eyes have not only been on the federal government, but at least four other companies in which it is involved. And it makes it difficult to definitively blame an element of the relatively difficult sea of the company.
“It is still too early to see a (musk’s backlash) in Tesla’s numbers,” said Stephanie Valdez Stream, director of industry information for Cox Automotive. “We cannot determine that polarization has people acquire or avoid or avoid a Tesla.”
Musk has become the objective of great attention to his measures to reshape the federal government while co-organnist of Oval Office press conferences with President Donald Trump. And the opposite winds for Tesla sales are real, increased competition at the cost of its cars.
Perhaps the biggest sign of change of interest in the possession of Tela comes from the global mobility of S&P, which has sales data on a state basis. He violated data in “Blue States”, which means that the states that voted for the Democratic candidate in the last four presidential elections, and “red states” where the Republicans won four consecutive elections. And within each group of states, he examined the percentage of households who already owned one Tesla who bought another when buying a new car.
In blue states, the percentage of repeated buyers from Tesla fell 72% in the last quarter from 2023 to 65% in the last quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, Tesla buyers repeatedly slightly elongated 47.6 % at the end of 2023 to 48.2% in the last three months of last year.
The drop in the loyalty rate for the owners of Tesla in the Blue States allowed Tesla to lose around 1 percentage point of market share in these states, which includes some of the largest automotive markets in the country, such as California /
There is additional anecdotal evidence that suggests that some buyers may have been disabled by Musk’s political activism. Valdez streaty indicates that the ballot of potential car buyers this month by Morning SESPS Consults which shows that almost 32% of American buyers “would not consider” the purchase of a Tesla. This is up compared to 27% in a morning survey a year ago, and only 17% when he asked the question in February 2021.
In comparison, only 16% of potential buyers were almost certain or very likely to examine a Tesla before buying in the last survey, a figure that has not changed much In the past four years.
The increase in people who say they are going through Tesla of their shopping list is not as great as those who now express a negative vision of Musk. A January election Through Quinnipiac University found that 53% of voters disapprove of Musk playing a leading role in the Trump administration, against 39% that approved. A survey in December 2022 by the University revealed that 36% of voters had a positive opinion on musk and 35% had a negative opinion.
A factor that could indicate a Tesla -based musk reaction would be the number of used teslas striking on the market, while the owners throw their cars. And there are more teslas currently exchanged, with an average of around 11,300 teslas listed on Cox’s Autotrade, a record, throughout the fourth quarter of last year, up 28% From the average of 8,800 a year earlier.
But even it has complicated factors – Cox said that a large part of the teslas flood striking used car lots is probably due to post-paid-in-sales overvoltage three years ago and to the natural trend of certain people who are negotiated in cars after three years.
And there are many other factors that probably lower new sales from Tesla, including increased competition. Western Legacy car manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen have spent the past few years deploying new models of electric vehicles, with more constantly on the way and sometimes with prices lower than Tesla.
In comparison, Tesla has made relatively modest modifications to its main range – the sedans of the Y model and the model 3 and the SUVs of the X model and the Y model. The only new model, the Cybertruck pick -up, is a vehicle of Cher niche that only had modest sales.
There is also a new important competition from the Chinese automaker byd, which has almost caught Tesla in global sales of electric vehicles and in fact exceeded it by a large margin in the fourth quarter of 2024. Byd distances Tesla’s market share In China and Europe, but it has to enter the American market.
Tesla sales in Germany in January fell 59% compared to a year ago, according to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority. And just as Musk was one of Trump’s main supporters, he became a high -level supporter of the extreme right alternative for Germany (AFD).
Car purchases are among the most important and most carefully thought out purchases that consumers make other than accommodation. And they generally examine mainly the price, the options and the value perceived more than factors such as the CEO policy, said Ivan Drury, director of information on the Edmund car purchase site.
“There is a huge band of populalaton who does not care about politics or it’s not a summit,” said Drury. “Many people will put their feelings on politics aside during the purchase like this and will focus on the price.”