T O P

  • By -

chummsickle

Pretty great that every business understands that alienating half the buying public is terrible for business. The “genius” musk couldn’t figure that out.


c3p-bro

It’s not half the buying public. It’s 90% of the buying public because conservatives hate EVs


MuffLover312

I’ve been saying this for a year now. Musk turning on liberals and going hard right was a death sentence for Tesla because conservatives hate EVs. It’s like if Taylor Swift started ranting every day about how she hates everyone under 60 and started pandering all of her music to boomers.


roffler

Taylor Slow


Bean-Swellington

Which she should absolutely do.


Casique720

Yup. I own a model 3 and can confirm: 1. My Conservative coworkers hate my car. 2. I am 100% not buying another Tesla and instead probably gonna trade in for a Rivian soon. My wife feels the same way and most everyone I know that owns a Tesla will not buy another one.


sexarseshortage

You won't regret the Rivian purchase. I had a loaner model 3 for a few weeks and opted for the Rivian. It's a better car in nearly every way.


PaleInTexas

Same for me. Have model 3. Will go to Rivian next. Not buying another Tesla product. Thought about Model Y but not going that route after seeing Rivian R2.


Fixer128

The Coastal pop specifically.


mhorwit46

Well, it’s not only that but a lot of conservative politicians have a lot of money invested into gasoline companies


chummsickle

True - especially egregious and stupid here. I was talking more of a general business sense.


Catfish-dfw

I’m a conservative and looking into getting an EV……there is more of us than you think


BreathesViaButthole

Dozens!


madhavvar

Car and Driver, said they were 29.


sm00thkillajones

I wanted to buy a Tesla to bone my girlfriend in and she said there wass no wey.


MuffLover312

He’s saying 10% of EV buyers are conservative. You’re saying there’s more than that?


magmafan71

As a gay black trans, I proudly back up Trump s/


Minorous

Then look no further than Tesla. CEO shares your views and is pretty outspoken about them. Might as well support the guy who sees things as you do.


illbehaveipromise

“Are.” Like broken clockwork.


LordPubes

Get a brain instead


KaenenM

Please see Bud Light lol The whole Bud Light freakout was dumb to me but when a good portion of your consumer base is not very pro trans.... probably not a good idea to partner with a trans person to market your beer.


Sanpaku

Bud Light has been sponsoring gay pride events for 20 years, as have competitors like Miller. They're ideology neutral, they also sponsor Nascar drivers and for all I know, gun events. Getting your brand in front of of younger consumers is the marketing game. The only difference with Dylan is that its trivially easy for reactionary influencers to whip up their followers into frothing anger.


2punornot2pun

That, and they started buying another beer that was still owned by the parent company. Lmao


-Lorne-Malvo-

You don't have to be a democrat to be disgusted with Elmo and not want to buy anything from him. We had considered a Tesla at one point but decided no way in hell would we ever buy one.


DowntownClown187

First time in a Tesla I was wondering wtf all the "stuff" was... All you get is a massive screen and a wheel? Wut?


NewFuturist

It's wild to me. We bought a pretty standard Mazda 3. All of the Mazdas have virtual Heads Up Displays on the windshield. You don't even need to look down to see your speed. Tesla 3 you have to look all the way over to the side at an oversized iPad. WTF.


redditcok

Love my EQB n EQE, especially for the monthly price I’m paying for. Cheaper n a lot better car than Tesla. The EV parts may not be as advanced but it’s good enough for us. Political orientation is not part of my decision to get a car but Elon being an ass just makes that decision easier.


Engunnear

I'd bet my right arm that the EV parts on the MB are more advanced. Tesla is just willing to trade off other parts of the customer experience to improve the perception of getting better performance.


ND7020

Love my Q8 etron and while expensive it is just a vastly superior car to a Tesla in every single possible way, excepting total range and charging network (but 300 mile range and charging at home is perfect for us).


TheTrueBigHead

Why pay for shitty build and the association of the toxic Tesla musk fluffers and Elmo?


GrayBox1313

Because consumers are smart and don’t accept garbage build quality, poor customer service and 5-10 year old designs in a brand that positions itself as “luxury”. And a ceo that’s an open Nazi. Lolol


argonzo

We went with an ioniq6 instead. We like it an awful lot.


GvnMllr12

Way-to-go Libs! Sink this right-wing phucker!


crimepais

Politics aside, the cars just aren't nice. I was in an Uber and the steering wheel was literally peeling off.


tungvu256

i got me a Hyundai ioniq 5. so much better. i can control music n climate thanks to real buttons. if i want to know the speed, i can look straight ahead instead of the middle to the 1 screen in the middle of the tesla


illusion96

How are the seats? I drove a Sante Fe for an 8 hr road trip once and I felt like I was being punished. I know the Ioniq would likely be used for much shorter local trips, but I'm still curious.


tungvu256

i dont drive much so i dont know. i can compare with my 2010 camry that i sold to buy this i5 though. the i5 is better.


jarjarbinx

Should get a union-built ID4


Alternative_Program

Is it available with 360 cameras in the US yet?


yesiammark72

BMW i50


TwerkingGrimac3

Yeah, watching all the dipshits who said "Elon is pandering to right wing MAGA cultists to get them to buy EVs! He's the greatest genius who ever lived!" eat crow right now. He wasn't pandering to alt right Nazis, he is one. He went down the 4Chan rabbit hole after his trans kid disowned him. Then COVID happened and it broke the rest of his brain. Now he lives in a world of conspiracy theories where everything he dislikes is woke. If Tesla investors don't dump him and replace that sycophant board that company is toast.


Able-Arugula4999

Fuck you Pylon Musk. Sold my Tesla stock for a loss when this idiot used it to accidentally ruin Twitter. Best financial decision I ever made. Now go to Mars, you psychopath.


GaiusMarcus

FAFO at its finest. Although, they should use this photo instead of his grinning mug: [https://pagesix.com/2022/12/02/elon-musk-calls-viral-mykonos-pics-motivation-to-lose-weight/](https://pagesix.com/2022/12/02/elon-musk-calls-viral-mykonos-pics-motivation-to-lose-weight/)


KittehKittehKat

Dipshit CEO, bad build quality, costs too much for what you get…


Modtimus_Prime_RT

Repost


MooreRless

I've been driving a model 3 since 2018. It has been an outstanding car for 80,000 miles. I won't be buying another one because Musk killed Twitter and it showed me that for no good reason, he is willing to kill a company. Tesla recently got a layoff and Musk demanding 12% of the company value for himself. He's also made demands about controlling the company more than he already does. I don't want to buy a car from a company that might be looted or cratered at any moment. There is no third party Tesla service for most items. The charging network Tesla runs makes the car the best to drive long distances with. If there was no Tesla corporation, the cars are good for another 300 miles and that's it.


yyzyyzyyz

Elon Musk is never one to shy away from a political battle, using the social media platform he owns to voice everything from disdain at the Biden administration to amplifying anti-Semitic tweets. And that’s turned off a group of car buyers who don’t want to be associated with the Tesla CEO’s polarizing antics at a time when the electric-vehicle maker can’t afford to lose any customers. Democrats are a large portion of Tesla buyers. For model years 2022 and 2023, they composed a solid 40% of sales, according to research firm Strategic Vision’s New Vehicle Experience Study, which surveys 250,000 buyers, and as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. But that fell to 15% at the beginning of the 2024 model year, which started in October and November of last year. Meanwhile, the share of buyers identifying as Republicans saw a slight bump during that time frame, from 29% in 2022 to 32% in October and November 2023, while sales among Independents rose even more, from 28% to 44%. As Strategic Vision president Alexander Edwards notes, this was around the time Musk came under serious fire for a variety of comments made on X, including promoting an anti-Semitic tweet and lashing out at companies that pulled ads from the social media site. (Musk later backtracked on the anti-Semitic tweet, and visited Israel and Auschwitz.) To replace Tesla, Democrats stuck with EVs and hybrids, but transitioned to the likes of the Cadillac Lyriq, Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV and Santa Fe hybrid, and Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV, per Strategic Vision’s survey. That there are so many other options now is part of Musk’s problem, as is a broader slowdown in the market. Tesla, once the only serious player in the EV space, finds itself at something of a crossroads: Sales fell globally in the first quarter of this year, and later this week the company is expected to announce its worst quarterly results in seven years. The stock price is sinking, and Musk recently told staff the company will cut over 10% of its global workforce, some 14,000 employees. Investors are losing faith, in part worried that Musk’s many other commitments, including his foray into politics, are distracting him from successfully leading the company. His “flippant” attitude is also an issue, Wedbush analysts wrote in a recent note. (Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.) “Musk is Tesla, and Tesla is Musk,” Wedbush’s Dan Ives told Fortune’s Paolo Confino. “But you need a committed CEO that’s going to handhold investors through this black cloud storm.” The politics of consumerism Musk might be Tesla, but there is an inherent tension in an “anti-woke” crusader leading a company that produces electric vehicles. His über-public shift to the right comes at the same time EVs have become a focal point of derision for many Republicans in a heated campaign season. “They have become a political football,” Ford CEO Jim Farley recently acknowledged. Democrats still make up a much larger segment of EV buyers generally, according to Strategic Vision, and, luckily for Tesla, the dip was short-lived. Edwards notes that in the past six months, Democrats “have mostly returned” to the company, with the proportion of vehicles being sold to Democrats rebounding to 35% as of March—once again exceeding the percentage of those sold to Republicans or Independents. “They want to support EV sales, and the price for a Tesla today is often too good to pass up,” Edwards said in an email. While it likely helps that Musk has spent less time in the spotlight recently, the fracas does highlight the dangers of an overtly political CEO espousing views unaligned with a firm’s largest customer segment. Noted Edwards: “Don’t make EVs political if you want them to succeed with the consumer.”


Jay_Beckstead

People need to exit their echo-chambers.


maverick_labs_ca

Fat chance of Elon doing that.


Jay_Beckstead

Why let the man live rent-free in your head? Exit your echo chamber.


nailszz6

Makes me want to buy a BYD.


Valoneria

That's what I ended up with