In Q1 this year, a Tesla using Autopilot technology experienced one accident per 7.63 million miles driven, while the US average was more than 11x higher
→ https://t.co/C7no6bC4vK
Tesla’s brand loyalty probably has peaked. Elon brought politics into the buying equation for many consumers.
Previously, liberals were the target market for an EV and conservatives were the target market for ICE vehicles. Politics have deteriorated Tesla’s target market. Price cuts, incentive deals, rate promotions, and more are probably the new normal to keep people interested/buying.
I’m not a Tesla hater (own my 3rd vehicle) or offended by the politics. It’s just surprising to hear people in the real world - not behind a keyboard - say they are no longer interested in a Tesla product because of Elon. They often will even buy inferior products out of spite saying “I’ll never buy a product from that man”. I’m not sure we can put that genie back in the bottle.
got to be one ofthe ‘wildest’ article on Tesla I’ve read in a long time. Interesting view into the US consumer psyche though and some of the areas where the company hasn’t live up to expectations which has hurt the brand. Perception is reality wrt tesla https://t.co/BMn6ICMCLY
@TSLAFanMtl If ev penetration is so low it’s hard to understand why they would have trouble selling model y or their cars in general. That was the whole argument against competition being an issue.
I do think the brand has taken a hit negatively whether it’s Elon or the quality issues
With a consumer brand, the behavior of the CEO is a factor. It just is. If it’s a functional but invisible product like Starlink, it matters far less. If it’s a big ticket item and visible public-facing identity symbol like a car, it matters a lot. People worry about what their car brand says about them. It’s just basic branding 101.
If Elon wants to a) be the face of the company and b) continue being a political activist, the car brand will keep suffering. Robotaxi and Optimus would be far less impacted by anything he says or does because neither is a strong brand symbol for the consumer, robotaxi would be light touch trip based transport, and Optimus can thrive in industrial/commercial and isn’t outwardly visible if in homes.
@DriveTeslaca Drove it around downtown Toronto. Very impressive but sometime too overly cautious. It had to deal with all sorts of different situations and did fairly well. Can’t believe I have it for the next month!
Lakers' LeBron James is the first NBA player to score 40,000 points.
James scored his first 10,000 points in the exact same number of games as it took him to go from 30,000 to 40,000
- 10K in 368 games
- 10K to 20K in 358 games
- 20K to 30K in 381 games
- 30K to 40K in 368 games