Musk did some crazy brand management with Twitter, but the Tesla/Trump stuff has got to be unparalleled in the history of branding. He built a product that was an identity-broadcasting thing for liberals and then pulled a 180 and drove as hard as one could possibly imagine in the other direction.
Even if he had some idea of selling to conservatives, become the only EV manufacturer selling to that segment, he could have put out a different brand, which lots of manufacturers do, and mitigate losses to the original brand.
Stifel’s Think Tank Group data has shown that Democrats’ net favorability of Tesla fell to -15% from 7% since February 2024, while Republicans’ rose to 27% from 11%. Democrats’ net purchase consideration for Tesla vehicles also dropped to -42% from -31% since Musk endorsed Trump in August, while Republicans’ improved to -13% from -26% in the same period, per Stifel.
“There is a clear negative shift from Democrats, while Republicans willingness to buy a Tesla is rising… This backlash has surfaced anecdotally and on social media (people placing bumper stickers on their Tesla’s claiming they love the car, but not Elon, and other variations),” the analyst noted.
Car brand history has a lot in store if youre interested. You can basically start at Volkswagen for the obvious, mitsubishi is a story too, hell even Ford but that has some anachronisms we have to kind of ignore.
At least denazification worked on Henry Ford. Someone showed him footage of the death camps and being confronted with the reality of it gave him a stroke that almost killed him, and which contributed to the cerebral hemorrhage that did kill him.
Musk did some crazy brand management with Twitter, but the Tesla/Trump stuff has got to be unparalleled in the history of branding. He built a product that was an identity-broadcasting thing for liberals and then pulled a 180 and drove as hard as one could possibly imagine in the other direction.
Even if he had some idea of selling to conservatives, become the only EV manufacturer selling to that segment, he could have put out a different brand, which lots of manufacturers do, and mitigate losses to the original brand.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-sale-big-losses-second-hand-value-plunge-elon-musk-2025-3
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-gaining-republicans-loses-traction-democrats-stifel/
I don’t give a crap how much I’ll get for it. I’m ruling out private sale because I don’t want to deal with nazis.
I’d rather crush it.
I do have a friend that does EV conversions on cargo vans. Could be useful for that.
Car brand history has a lot in store if youre interested. You can basically start at Volkswagen for the obvious, mitsubishi is a story too, hell even Ford but that has some anachronisms we have to kind of ignore.
At least denazification worked on Henry Ford. Someone showed him footage of the death camps and being confronted with the reality of it gave him a stroke that almost killed him, and which contributed to the cerebral hemorrhage that did kill him.