Once upon a time, owning a Tesla signaled that a driver was tech-savvy, eco-conscious, or just plain rich. Now, for many people, it signals something different: an endorsement of Elon Musk's politics.
Musk's rightward turn — including his embrace of President Trump, his central role in slashing and dismantling government agencies, a litany of controversial remarks and one lightning rod of a gesture — has triggered a remarkable backlash, analysts say.
Massive protests at Tesla dealerships. Owners with buyers' remorse and apologetic bumper stickers. People calling Teslas "swasticars." Vandalism, and sometimes violence, against Tesla vehicles, chargers and storefronts.
But, of course, there are also many Americans who celebrate Musk's actions. Could Republican support — in some cases, a backlash to the backlash — make up for lost sales?
President Trump seems to hope so: Despite his previous scathing criticisms of electric vehicles over price and travel range, this week, he said that he'd buy a Tesla as a "show of support" for his adviser. In a photo op at the White House, he sat in a red Model S and told reporters he hoped his purchase would boost Tesla sales.
Survey data does clearly show that the Tesla brand is soaring in popularity among Republicans and conservatives. But there's a problem for the auto company: The liberals, moderates and independents that Musk is driving away are more likely to consider an electric vehicle. The new fans he's winning over — for now — not so much. Some surveys have found a gap of more than 20 percentage points.
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"There are going to be no explosion of sales that recover the losses that Tesla has been enduring because of this political shift," says Alexander Edwards, the head of Strategic Vision, a company that surveys new vehicle buyers. "All they've done is alienate their primary consumer," and won new fans who aren't in a position to buy an EV, he says.
Mike Murphy, a Republican political consultant, is more optimistic. Slightly. "He could help make Republicans consider EVs more, take a little of the political stigma away," he says. "But it has nowhere near the short-term impact upon Tesla that Elon's Bond villain status among Democrats and among Harris voters has."
For some conservatives, Musk is a reason to buy
The backlash against Musk has been brewing at least since 2022, when he announced his plans to buy Twitter and his social media posting, often on political topics, increased significantly. And from the beginning, responses did cut both ways.
At the time, Norman Pieniążek was beyond frustrated with Twitter and other social media platforms. In the 1980s, Pieniążek had been an underground publisher in Poland, fighting against censorship after the government imposed martial law there. He later moved to the U.S., and when his posts challenging the science around COVID were taken down by Facebook and Twitter, it felt like censorship all over again.
Then Musk announced he wanted to buy Twitter to unlock its potential as "the platform for free speech around the globe."
"I said 'Okay, that's my guy,'" Pieniążek recalled. He needed a new car anyway, and was planning to get a gas-powered one. But he changed his mind. "My heart is with him," he remembers thinking. "I have to put my money where my heart is."
He bought a Model X.
Meanwhile, some conservative buyers are motivated by disgust with the backlash against Musk and Trump, which they consider unfair.
"It's honestly made me want to buy more cars from Tesla," says Kamali Wright, who works in marketing in Florida. He owns a Model 3 and calls Musk and Trump his two favorite people.
"If everybody's going to hate on this guy," he says, "that's going to make me buy even more."
Wright wants to get a Cybertruck next.
Data shows Republican support is rising
The investment banking company Stifel, working with polling firm Morning Consult, found that among Republicans, favorable opinions of Tesla started rising in February 2024, while interest in buying one picked up that August. Among Democrats, net positive views of Tesla dropped 22 percentage points from February; among Republicans, they rose 16 percentage points. Democratic net purchase consideration dropped 12 percentage points since August; among Republicans, it increased 13 percentage points.
"It's pretty eye-opening," says analyst Stephen Gengaro, who wrote a report on the findings.
But then he pulls up a different chart, showing how political partisanship lines up with overall interest in buying an EV. And there, Democrats hovered 10 percentage points above Republicans throughout the last four years, through January 2025.
And that's not just a question of ideological opposition to battery-powered cars. It's also about what Republicans tend to prefer in a vehicle. EVs' towing problems, for instance, can be an issue for Republican buyers, who are "significantly more likely to be in a truck and using their vehicle for work," notes Edwards, of Strategic Vision. And charging infrastructure tends to be concentrated in cities; rural areas tend Republican. Even outside cities, states with progressive governments have been more interested in building out EV infrastructure as part of fighting climate change. Add it up, and it tips the scale against EVs for some buyers.
"Tesla has gained a large number of Republican fans who love what Mr. Musk is doing, both politically and with the brand of vehicle and with social media," says Edwards. "But they have little interest in an electrified vehicle."
Edwards has been asking Tesla buyers about their political affiliations for the last decade. Last year, for the first time the data showed that the average Tesla buyer was more likely to be a Republican than a Democrat.
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But that wasn't because Republican purchases were surging; it was because Democrats were fleeing the brand.
In contrast, Democrats continue to dominate among buyers of other electric vehicles.
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Edwards thinks this political shift also explains a trend among car shoppers overall. His data shows the number of buyers who would "definitely consider" a Tesla dropped by nearly two-thirds between October 2021 and December 2024.
In short, it's a problem for Tesla that the demographic that's the most interested in EVs — liberals and progressives — is finding the most successful EV-maker in America repellent.
After the election, Murphy, the Republican strategist, conducted a national poll focused on Musk. "If you voted for Kamala Harris, you give Elon a 76% negative rating and only a 5% positive rating — which is saying something, because the margin of error on the poll is 4%," he says. "So scientifically, [we] can't even quite prove there are Harris voters who like Elon on the planet."
Politics don't explain all Tesla's woes
Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment, but Musk has previously said it's the quality of the product that matters, not a CEO's views.
But Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with the car data company Edmunds, says that Tesla is different from other car companies. Most Americans probably couldn't name another auto CEO, she points out.
She thinks it's certainly true that some new Republican buyers will make up for some lost sales to Democrats. But Tesla's problem is more profound than that, she says: "Why would you ever want to alienate current customers — or just potential buyers in general?"
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Still, it's possible to overstate the role of politics in Tesla's flagging sales. There's more competition for the brand, as companies like General Motors, Ford, Honda and Hyundai ramp up their EV production (and globally, Chinese automakers take a huge slice of the EV market). Tesla is also rolling out an update to the Model Y, giving shoppers a reason to wait a few months; analysts say that's currently pulling pull sales down.
There are also plenty of drivers who say their feelings about Musk have nothing to do with what's in their driveway. Some people are outraged by Musk but still think Teslas are superior vehicles. Some Trump fans love Musk but can't give up the growl of an engine. And there's Nancy Baroody, who is a big fan of Musk — when I ask if that played any role in her decision to buy a Tesla last fall, she's a little baffled." I really don't let politics influence what kind of a product I like," she says.
For EVs, politicization isn't new
Politics aren't everything for a car brand — but they're still something. And that's especially true for EVs.
Murphy, who has launched a group called the American EV Jobs Alliance to try to build bipartisan support for electric vehicles, has spent years pondering why more Republicans won't buy them. He argues that long before Musk's political turn, EVs were already politicized — as symbols of "green," liberal values.
"They were seen as political statements, not as cars," he says. "And that's not good for selling more electric vehicles."
Murphy would like to see EVs sold on their merits: The gas savings, the quick acceleration, the smooth and quiet ride, never having to do another oil change. Yes, they're better for the climate, and that motivates many buyers to seek them out. But leave that out of the marketing, he urges automakers.
"Take the politics out of it," he says, "and let people with clear eyes pick the car that's best for them." If they did, he thinks, a lot more of them would pick EVs.
But right now, Murphy says, the politics of buying an EV aren't going away — just getting more complicated. What Musk is doing, he says, is a little bit like pouring gasoline on a battery fire.
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