NEW YORK (AP) – Elon Musk’s car company is required each year to report to investors all the bad things that could happen to it, and the latest version lists all the imaginable threats, expensive prosecution of battery fires out of war and another epidemic.
But there is practically no mention in the last annual update of Musk’s full entry into right policy, which, according to some experts, deactivates potential customers who do not share their opinions.
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“It’s Marketing 101: don’t get involved in politics,” said New York brand consultant Robert Passikoff. “People will stop buying your products.”
It can be too late.
Tesla sales plunged 45% in Europe in January, according to the Jato Dynamics research firm, even if global sales of electric vehicles have increased. This comes after a report of falling sales in California, its largest American market and the First annual drop Globally for the company last year.
“I do not even want to drive it,” said the owner of model 3, John Parnell, Democrat of Ross, California, adding that he also cancels his order for the company’s cybertruck, losing a $ 100 deposit. “He destroys the brand with his policy.”
Analysts in the automotive industry say it is too early to say with certainty how many damage causes Tesla, as so many other factors could explain its current problems. His best -selling vehicle, the Y model, is publishing a new version this year, leading Tesla’s potential buyers to retain purchases now. And European and Chinese manufacturers finally catch up with the world leader in electric vehicles, offering cars with battery life and reliability that are competitive.
But, if anything, it makes Musk’s political comments even more reckless, say automobile analysts.
“Musk thinks he can say whatever he wants and does not think Tesla will suffer consequences,” said Seth Goldstein, analyst of Morningstar. “Tesla was at Sweet Spot. Now he has competition.
The sales figures were particularly bad in Germany and France in January, down approximately 60% each, more than the average drop for more than two dozen European countries questioned. Sales in France dropped by an additional 26% in February.
More worrying was the ventilation of Tesla’s individual models. Tesla model 3 sales fell 33% in all European countries, even if this car is not updated and there is no reason for buyers to wait.
“Part of the population is not satisfied with his opinions, his political activism,” said Jato’s principal analyst, Felipe Munoz, who had shrugged the threat of boycott earlier this year, but who now has a second thought.
Many Tesla buyers were rich and environmental professionals, often liberal, who were attracted by the conversation of Musk on how its electric vehicles could help save the planet from the destruction of fossil fuel.
No more.
“I was loved by the left,” said Musk in an interview with Tucker Carlson on February 18, while his stock was halfway through a dive of almost 30% for the month. “Less nowadays.”
His decision to spend 270 million dollars for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and to support him publicly was risky enough for his business. Then he doubled, continuing an oblique bar strategy as head of the Trump government efficiency team and taking on his political revolution and his incendiary conversation abroad.
He supported the extreme right, pro-Russian and anti-Muslim in Germany, described the British Prime Minister as a “evil tyrant” who heads a “police state” and recently declared about an American neighbor and a large Tesla market, “Canada is not a real country”.
The backlash was fierce.
In the United States, Tesla was besieged by demonstrators, its vandalized vehicles and stickers for bumpers appearing on its cars with words such as “I bought it before Elon went crazy.”
An effigy of musk was suspended from Milan and the image of him making a salvation in a right arm projected in a Tesla factory outside Berlin. In London, a bus poster of him over the word “Swasticars” illuminated social media. A Minister of the Polish government called for a Boycott from Tesla.
“I will no longer buy a Tesla,” said Jens Fischer, a 50 -year -old microscope seller in Witten, Germany, who thinks Musk is a “destabilizing democracy” and slapped one of these stickers “Elon has gone crazy” on his model 3. “I would sell if I got a good offer.”
Tesla’s investor, Ross Gerber, says Musk has managed to marry the best product in the world with the worst marketing in the world.
“People want to buy things that make them feel good, you don’t want politics to be involved,” said GERBER, a money manager whose portfolios hold nearly $ 60 million in Tesla shares. “It is even worse when you have division problems, whether it is to dismiss climatologists or to withdraw help from hungry African children.”
Boycotts are used to serving, and Goldstein de Morningstar says that buying a car is too large a decision and costs too much to make them successful goals anyway.
An owner of Tesla, Londonian Harry Chathli, is not moved by the counter coupling, claiming that he does not intend to get rid of his Tesla S. He has nothing other than praise for Musk whom he calls a visionary to transform “the way in which we think of the transport and the future of our planet”.
But if Tesla’s actions are an indicator, the company’s prospects deteriorate and the position of Musk in the Trump administration does not help. Friday, he fell 37% since his inauguration day, a loss of $ 550 billion in investors wealth.
Trade writers after Pylas in London and David Mchugh in Frankfurt contributed to this story.