Alan Ohnsman is a Forbes senior editor who covers cleantech and advanced transportation. He joined Forbes in 2016 and works in Los Angeles. He co-authors the Current Climate newsletter, writes about promising clean energy developments and has covered Tesla since 2006, when he was with Bloomberg News. He has a graduate degree in journalism and a B.
The billionaire CEO’s embrace of the anti-EV presidential candidate threatens to politicize a brand that’s always sold best in California and, based on market studies, with Democrats .
“Elon isn't doing anything with the thought of what's best for Tesla at this point,” said Ross Gerber, CEO of Los Angeles-based wealth manager Gerber Kawasaki and once among Musk’s biggest fans. “Tesla sales in California are down substantially because of this. California is the biggest market for Tesla and one of the biggest markets for cars in the world. About 25% of the cars in California purchased are now EVs. So when you think about the brand damage, it’s now beyond repair.
“Democrats have an overwhelmingly more favorable opinion of EVs, with only 5% claiming to dislike EVs compared to 39% of Republicans,” said Jessica Caldwell, head analyst for auto market researcher Edmunds, citing data the company has compiled.
Musk’s appeal to people who identify as Democrats is also falling, though it was already low with that group, based on responses from more than 8,000 people. “It's been pretty much flat, but his favorables have fallen from 29% in January to 25% now among Democrats,” Clayton said.
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