Elon Musk’s Toxicity Could Spell Disaster for Tesla | EUROtoday

“I’ve defended you guys so much over the years, and you make great products, but even I can’t stick up for you anymore,” she said.

Róbertsdóttir, now a software program developer for Icelandic air site visitors management firm Isavia, began her tech profession as founding father of Iowa-based Celadon Applications. This 2009 startup developed software program for electrical automobiles. An extended-time Tesla stockholder, one in all her resolutions was put to the vote at Tesla’s annual shareholder assembly in 2023, calling on Tesla’s board to launch a succession plan for Musk and different “key persons” whose habits might create a threat for the corporate and shareholders.

“When people look at this company,” she stated on the assembly, “they see the company as a synonym for its CEO.” (The board beneficial rejecting the decision, and it was duly voted down.)

While some shareholders have already voted with their ft—in January, Dutch civil service pension fund ABP bought its €782 million stake in Tesla, as an illustration—most nonetheless appear unbothered by Musk’s trolling, or his obvious takeover of the US authorities’s govt department with the assistance of younger coders. Musk’s “pedo guy” feedback in opposition to a British cave rescue diver, efficiently defended in a 2019 defamation trial, didn’t ruffle that many shareholder feathers, nevertheless it’s more durable to disregard gross sales cull calls.

In Vienna, extra Tesla automobiles have been focused for vandalism.

In late January, Poland’s sports activities and tourism minister Sławomir Nitras lobbied for a Tesla boycott. “There is no justification for any reasonable Pole to continue purchasing Teslas,” he stated.

In Germany, the place Musk has precipitated outrage by endorsing far-right political celebration Alternative for Germany (AfD), going as far as to seem as a shock video visitor on the celebration’s nationwide election marketing campaign launch final month, a number of corporations have reduce ties with Tesla. Drugstore chain Rossmann, with 4,700 shops throughout Europe, has changed Tesla in its electrical fleet with different EV manufacturers, citing the “incompatibility” of its company values and Musk’s ideology.

German power firm LichtBlick revealed an uncoupling from Tesla on a LinkedIn publish. “We are pulling the plug on Tesla vehicles in our fleet,” stated the announcement, with the agency’s actual property head, Kevin Lütje, clarifying that “Elon Musk’s support of Donald Trump and his recommendation to vote for a right-wing populist and right-wing extremist party … is in no way compatible with LichtBlick’s values.” He said that “climate protection and electromobility are extremely important to us, but in the future we will be relying on providers other than Tesla.”

Such boycotts profit Tesla’s rivals. “We have seen an increase in people writing to us and switching to Polestar in recent months,” Polestar’s German CEO Michael Lohscheller tells WIRED. Lohscheller known as Musk’s endorsement of AfD “totally unacceptable.”

There are many causes for Tesla’s waning fortunes in Europe—together with stale mannequin line-up (Geely’s Gothenburg-developed Zeekr 7X SUV has extra bells and whistles than a Model Y) and expense (a Model 3 prices €39,990 in Europe, whereas many higher EVs are biting into this worth level)—however Musk’s regular descent from real-life Tony Stark to MAGA energy dealer appears to be a key motive for Tesla’s present precipitous fall from grace.

Tesla gross sales dropped 13 p.c throughout the entire European Union in 2024, in accordance with knowledge from the trade physique ACEA, and identical to in Spain and France, in lots of key markets the autumn remains to be steeper. According to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, Tesla registered just one,277 new automobiles in Germany in January, a year-on-year drop of 59.5 p.c.

Tesla was contacted for this piece and didn’t reply, however there appears to be no mild on the finish of the tunnel for Tesla gross sales in Europe. A current survey by Dutch information outlet EenVandaag obtained responses from 432 Tesla drivers. Some “31 percent are either contemplating selling their car or have already done so,” the survey discovered. Forty p.c of homeowners felt embarrassed to personal a Tesla. By any measure, these are statistics that no automobile firm desires to personal.