- America’s overall Tesla favorability hit a low as liberals’ and moderates’ scores tanked, a survey found.
- But the brand’s sentiment among conservative Americans has risen, YouGov found.
- Tesla’s stock price and sales in several countries have fallen in recent months.
The American public’s favorability of Tesla has fallen to a nine-year low, a recent survey found.
In addition to Tesla struggling with declining sales in multiple markets and a falling stock price, sentiment among liberals and moderates in the US has fallen off a cliff, recent YouGov surveys found, which were first reported by Sherwood News.
Overall, Americans’ impression of Tesla dropped to a score of minus 12.7 on Wednesday, YouGov found — the lowest it’s been since 2016, when the firm began measuring US sentiment toward Tesla through daily surveys.
Tesla scored the lowest among liberals, at minus 34.9, with moderates at minus 9.1. By comparison, the average impression score for all automakers was 17.2.
But Tesla’s favorability among conservative Americans is up significantly.
Tesla scored 7.6 among conservative Americans on Wednesday, significantly higher than under six months ago, when it scored in the negatives.
It’s also significantly higher than where it was trending in 2022, when conservative sentiment toward Tesla dipped as low as minus 6. That same year, liberals scored Tesla as high as 8.7, and moderates as high as 14.
YouGov, a global public opinion and data company, also conducts daily polling for thousands of other major brands. It told Business Insider that its brand perception metrics were impression, value, reputation, satisfaction, quality, and people’s likelihood to recommend the brand.
The impression findings come as anti-Elon Musk protests and anti-Tesla boycott efforts have been taking place across several US cities in response to Musk’s political involvement with the Trump administration. The automaker has also been the target of a series of vandalism incidents, which have led police to make several arrests in recent weeks.
Musk, whose image is closely tied to the Tesla brand, has also seen his favorability fall in the US, recent polling found.
In a CNN survey of American adults conducted by SSRS on President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, 53% of respondents reported a negative view of the Tesla CEO, while 35% rated him positively. Just over 60% of respondents said Musk didn’t have the right experience or judgment to change the government’s operations.
Despite Tesla’s worsening impression scores among liberal and moderate Americans, YouGov said that overall buying consideration — or the measure of whether a consumer would consider Tesla the next time they’re in the market for a vehicle — had remained relatively stable over time across US political groups.
On Wednesday, 8.1% of liberals, 9% of moderates, and 8.4% of conservatives in the US said they would consider buying a Tesla, compared with an average of 10% for all automakers, YouGov found. On the same date in 2022, 11.6% of American liberals, 9% of moderates, and 6% of conservatives said they would consider buying a Tesla vehicle. The year after, 6.8% of liberals, 8% of moderates, and 5.5% of conservatives in the US said they would consider buying a Tesla.
The results align with what some Wall Street analysts have previously predicted: Even if some consumers don’t approve of Musk’s actions, it may not necessarily stop them from buying the car they want.
But there are signs that Tesla’s sales have been affected in some markets, as Tesla sales have declined in recent months in several countries.
In February, Tesla deliveries were down over 70% in Australia and Germany and over 40% in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, transportation agencies in the countries reported. In the US, Tesla sales declined 11% in January, according to data from S&P Global Mobility, though the electric vehicle giant still maintained its leading market share in the country.
