Tesla’s problems go far beyond Elon Musk
Plante Moran’s analysis by WIRED shows that Tesla’s share of the North American EV market will decline from 70 percent in 2022 to just 31 percent by 2025 as total EV production rises from 777,000 to 2.87 million units.
In Europe, the decline of Tesla is already underway. Schmidt says data for the first 11 months of 2022 shows Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) vehicle sales outpaced the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 by more than 20 percent. Tesla’s product lines will end the year with 15% of the Western European electric vehicle market, up from 33% in 2019, he predicts.
European Union proposed legislation reduce carbon emissions from new cars and vans by 100 percent by 2035, which is likely to increase market competition from European automakers.
There is also a growing feeling that Musk’s behavior since the takeover of Twitter has further exacerbated the difficult situation for Tesla.
Over the past year, Musk has used Twitter to call for the prosecution of former director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci.“My pronouns are prosecution / Fauci”), sway from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on government spending and inflation, and took free speech debate center. He lashed out at critics, challenging, among other things, the size of their testicles.
A November analysis of the world’s top 100 brands by New York-based consultancy Interbrand estimated the value of the Tesla brand in 2022 at $48 billion, up 32 percent from 2021 but well short of its 183 percent growth from 2020. to 2021. Qualitative data from 1,000 industry consultants and sentiment analyzes from published sources showed a decline in brand strength, especially in relation to “trust, identity and understanding of the needs of its customers.”
“I think [Musk’s] the core is rapidly moving away from it, and people are just starting to say, “I don’t like Tesla’s smell; I don’t want to be associated with this,” says Daniel Binns, director of international development for Interbrand.
Among them are once loyal customers. Alan Soldich, a retired CTO based in Idaho, posted a deposit on the Model S in 2011 before the cars hit the roads after seeing the disembodied chassis in the Menlo Park showroom. His car, delivered in 2012, was numbered 2799, one of the first 3,000 cars produced.
He benefited from the company’s good, if idiosyncratic, customer service. When the car failed to start on Christmas morning 2012, he emailed Musk directly looking for a solution. Musk responded after just 24 minutes: “…Let’s see if we can diagnose and fix remotely. Sorry about that. I hope you have a good Christmas otherwise.”
On New Year’s Day, Jost de Vries, then VP of International Services at Tesla, and an assistant showed up at Saldic’s home with a trailer, loaded the car onto a flatbed, and drove it to Tesla’s Fremont, California plant to be repaired. Saldich and his family later even gave a tour of the factory. But since then, he has cooled off towards the company. In 2019, he sold his Model S and now drives a Mini Electric. In particular, he said he was annoyed by Musk’s verbal attacks on government programs and regulation, especially as Tesla has benefited from state and federal tax credits for electric vehicles.
“Personally, I probably wouldn’t buy another Tesla,” he says. “A, because there are so many alternatives, and B, I just don’t like [Musk] more.”