Elon Musk’s polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, later rebranded X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker’s U.S. sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with the billionaire’s persona.

The findings quantify for the first time how the political actions of the world’s wealthiest person – including his role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration – may have cost Tesla billions in lost vehicle sales while benefiting rival electric carmakers.

Tesla’s U.S. sales would have been between 67% and 83% higher, or about 1 million to 1.26 million additional vehicles, from October 2022 to April 2025, had it not been for what researchers call the “Musk partisan effect,” according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by Yale University economists.

  • teslasaur@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    And yet the stock broke a new record this week.

    Waiting for the other shoe to drop. I shorted it since i believed dropped sale would actually bring them back to earth. But clearly it has turned into some meme-stock.

    • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      The stock price and vehicle sales are not directly linked. Tesla is a meme stock. It’s a house of cards thy keep lying about

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      When he gets Farage elected it will get better for him (worse for us) and he can move on to the AfD

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      14 hours ago

      Perhaps it helps that their cars are still better than the competition.

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        14 hours ago

        Mechanically, they’re shockingly bad. I’ve spoken to mechanics that tell of some serious cost cutting when it comes to suspension and their attachments.

        New cars (3 years) can essentially fall apart at the wheels.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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          6 hours ago

          The three people I know with Teslurs had to have the car replaced under the 48 month lease. That’s why these cars are practically free used after warranty. They now shit parts and entire frames out using a Gigapress.

          Tesla was a tech company making cars. It’s like buying a car from MicroSoft.

        • vga@sopuli.xyz
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          14 hours ago

          Yeah, the weight + acceleration + mechanics quality combo isn’t great especially if you accelerate like a race driver. Which most new owners will for awhile certainly.

          I got some of those parts replaced in warranty just recently. Interesting to see if the same problems will come back.

          It’s possible that my opinion on this changes when warranty expires and we’ll see how the car really does long term. But so far it’s so much better than any competitor car we’ve tried that it’s not even close.