Buyers Are Avoiding Teslas Because Elon Musk Has Become So Toxic | Hacker News Reader

Buyers Are Avoiding Teslas Because Elon Musk Has Become So Toxic

futurism.com

Agree with this article, would never purchase a Tesla because don't want to support Musk!

Not where I live. Every day I pass more and more Tesla's on the road

What the article doesn't address is why there's no compensating effect from the people who like his antics. The two groups might be of vastly different sizes of course, but assuming this one survey from a single consultancy can be taken at face value, it would make me more skeptical that the views he's been espousing could make american conservatives comfortable buying electric cars without sacrificing even more business from liberals (which someone was arguing on here once).

I think it's different. In the US, if you want an electric car, Tesla is the default choice (this is less true in Europe). So something that pushes people away from the default will have far more effect than something that attracts people to the default, because the default is, well, the default.

Also, though, how many people actually like his antics? Like them enough to _buy a car_ that they wouldn't otherwise have bought? Do those people have any money?

The people who enjoy his antics lean towards the anti-electric car side of things.

A priori, the ratio of people disgusted with stupid vs people attracted to stupid is not 1:1. I tend to optimism it skews to rational over irrational, but Godwin's law says local distortions can happen.

In this case, its literally "put your money where your mouth is" which tends to the rational. I think people attracted to Musk's stupidity and with disposable income are fewer than people disgusted by it, and with the same disposable income.

Sorry to disagree but my non-statistical gut feel is, you're probably not right.

If the flyovers/Texans have to buy an electric car, then they will likely buy one from Elon. I agree, they aren’t clamoring for EVs unless and until they have to.

> I tend to optimism it skews to rational over irrational

I agree with the words, but don't think they mean what you think they mean :)

People like to belong and be part of the "in" group so tend to think their views are more popular than they are.

The truth is that based on actual sales numbers, Tesla is just fine: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/business/tesla-sales-q4/index.... Growth is slower, but that's true for EVs in general and there is a lot more competition than there used to be.

There's just no evidence that car shoppers care about Elon. I'd say avoiding Tesla's because of Elon's personality is the irrational take anyway. Don't buy them because they aren't built very well, don't not buy them because he's a jerk.

This isn't "fine:" https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/tesla-tsla-q1-2024-vehicle-d...

Elon isn't just a jerk. Many high-performing individuals are jerks. Elon is platforming and signal boosting racists and fascists and claiming it's all about freedom of speech. That's well beyond being a difficult person. SLAPP suits, racism and sexism in the workplace in his companies, making a tunnel boring company just to troll mass transit, etc. is what makes people want to avoid supporting him financially.

Model 3 is a fine EV especially at current used prices.

I would not be terribly surprised to learn that a majority of Tesla buyers are at best only vaguely aware that Elon exists at all, and have a commensurately faint opinion of his behavior.

And of those who do know more than a name and a face, that many have only caught up to the chaotic good supernerd Elon of three or four years ago, the 21st century howard hughes persona that prevailed before the Thailand drama, Twitter debacle, general shitlord edition emerged.

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