“Elon Musk makes me feel ashamed to drive my Tesla” – BBC News Brasil

The value of Tesla’s stock tumbled about two-thirds last year — the biggest drop since the company went public in 2010 — reflecting these and other concerns, such as production disruptions, the effect of high borrowing costs and falling demand in a weaker economy.

In December, big investors — many of them longtime allies of Musk — took their concern public, accusing him of brand damage and abandoning Tesla after its $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in October.

It didn’t help that Musk sold about $20 billion worth of Tesla stock last year — sales that weighed on the stock and were driven, at least in part, by the Twitter acquisition — didn’t help.

“It cost everyone a lot of money. It certainly didn’t protect Tesla shareholders,” says investor Ross Gerber, who is now seeking a seat on Tesla’s board and is calling for changes, including starting spending money on advertising , which Tesla has long been proud to be able to do without.

Gerber, the head of an investment management firm, says he is a friend of Musk and remains optimistic about the company’s future. He increased his stake in the company as the stock plummeted.

But he says the company needs to have a dedicated CEO and create its own voice, distinct from Musk.

“It’s very hard to believe now that Elon is a positive advertising force for Tesla,” he says.

Musk, who has more than 127 million Twitter followers, denied this week that his social media style was hurting the Tesla brand, saying his mass of followers “speaks for itself.”

But in recent weeks, faced with demand concerns, Tesla has announced big price cuts in the US, Europe and China, going as high as 20% on some models in the US.

Analysts hope the move will mitigate some of the damage to the brand, as financial considerations trump buyers’ moral qualms.

But the move will hurt the company’s profit margins, and for some car buyers, there’s no turning back.

Indie Grant, who works in the insurance industry in New Zealand, ditched Tesla when buying an electric car last year, opting instead for a Peugeot. The main reason was Musk’s political positioning.

“With him so attached to the brand, buying a Tesla makes you feel like you’re saying that you think it’s great and that you love everything it does,” says the 35-year-old New Zealander.

“That wasn’t quite the message I wanted to send, and with so many options, ruling out Tesla wasn’t too difficult.”

He says even the discount on the price wouldn’t make him buy a Tesla.

“My opinion of Tesla would only change if he (Elon Musk) was no longer associated with it,” he says.

Musk has already had PR issues on his social media posts. One — over the possibility of taking Tesla private in 2018 — has sparked allegations of fraud from regulatory agencies that have cost millions to settle.

This week, Musk had to defend his position as the company’s top executive in court. The shareholders had filed a lawsuit against him, demanding his departure. They say they missed the swings in stock prices because of Musk’s posts.

Musk recently won another lawsuit, involving a man who was part of the rescue of Thai students trapped in a cave. Musk was being sued for defamation for insulting first responders, but he won the case arguing he didn’t think her insulting him would be taken seriously.

Now, though, Musk isn’t just another person tweeting; he owns the platform.

This has increased the scope of his political views, which he shares with increasing frequency, and has influenced the way Twitter moderates content on the site, an issue described by many, including Musk, as important to American democracy.

After taking over, Musk was quick to release the account of former US President Donald Trump, who had been banned from the platform due to messages posted before the Capitol attacks.

Musk also posted a tweet that read, “My pronouns are Sue/Fauci” – referring to physician Anthony Fauci, who has spearheaded the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of this has caused outrage among progressives, who are the public most likely to buy electric cars in the US, Tesla’s largest market.

“This is largely a political issue,” says Jordan Marlatt, a technology analyst at Morning Consult who tracks public perceptions of thousands of U.S. brands. He says he’s seen a steep decline in Tesla’s preference among Democrats since last April, when Musk announced the deal to buy Twitter.

“He has spoken much more openly about his personal political views than before and this is influencing consumer perceptions.”

Marlatt says brands typically recover from damage from incidents involving political issues in about three months.

“What’s different for Twitter and Tesla is this consistency,” he says. “It’s every day, almost every hour sometimes.”

Anne Marie, who voted for both Democrats and Republicans, says past controversies have seemed like one-off events, but the surge in comments over the past year has had an impact.

“Elon Musk being a mouthy is nothing new,” he says. “What’s changed is that level of consistency with doing it every day and the fact that he was really butting into some issues with the apparent intention of pissing people off.”

He says right now he can’t imagine buying a Tesla the next time he needs to switch cars.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of variety to choose from. Are you really going to align yourself with a company that perhaps no longer represents your values? I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that.”