There are conservatives with money, and those without. The latter is louder and more visible. Importantly, one should always, as a business, be optimizing for those with dollars vs opinions. Opinions do not contribute to revenue.
The problem is the addressable market size. They traded the larger one (liberals with money and pro-EV opinions) for a much much smaller one (conservatives with money and pro-EV opinions).
The issue is that among conservatives with money, the primary opinion in their culture is anti-EV, so unless there is a pro-EV tipping soon point on that side, it's not likely that market will grow, or that it would even go to them vs more traditional auto-makers.
Stick a rather visible "What would Jesus do?" on your car.
C'mon, Kristallnacht? I'm not seeing any moves towards rounding up Tesla owners and sending them to camps. There's no political party carrying out organized pogroms against Tesla owners. No comparison whatsoever.
I've seen quite the opposite in liberal areas: a lot of empathy for neighbors who bought Teslas a while ago because many - Tesla owners or not - feel deceived by Elon.
That's how I feel about my neighbors with Teslas. None of them bought them with the intention of promoting techno-feudalism, and because it's an expensive product, they are stuck with it for a while.
Far less of a pass for cybertrucks. Even absent Elon's politics that thing is rolling fuck you to everyone else on the road.
I haven’t heard of that happening either.
Anyway people stuck with an old Tesla can just get an anti-musk bumpersticker.
Why not? I got one because I liked the look and it's a fantastic family car (and house power backup). I'm not "promoting techno-feudalism" or anything so sophisticated. For many of us, it's just a car. I simply like it and it does what my family needs in a car.
But because of all of the "ok fine, give the Tesla owners a pass but fuck the cybertrucks" people like you, I now get to worry about being assaulted for driving it or coming back to a vandalized, damaged car with my kids in tow. Hence the Kristallnacht-like comment.
This really is a case of trading a good addressable market for a much smaller one. Business-wise it makes no sense at all.
Edit: I just want to add a little grace here (got my Sunday suit on). I think Elon is probably the most interesting person you can ever hang out with most likely. He's definitely in a dark mindset atm, and I pray he gets out of it because it's not leading to a better world (and I know he once cared for this).
The main issue with conservatives is that they just don't like EVs and are much more skeptical about climate change.