“The pride and the good feeling I had while driving have disappeared for me”

Last year, car enthusiast Tae Helton almost bought a second Tesla for his family fleet. But after CEO Elon Musk made gestures at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump last month that some people thought resembled a Nazi salute, he no longer wants anything to do with the brand.

"The pride and the good feeling I had while driving have disappeared for me," says Helton about the Model 3, which he has only driven about 4,000 kilometers. The politically moderate 49-year-old now wants to pay off his car loan early and sell the sedan before the end of the year.

Helton is not the only one feeling this way: The electric car manufacturer's sales fell last year for the first time in more than a decade. In January, the number of Tesla vehicles sold in Europe fell by 45 percent. Tesla is showing particular weaknesses in regions where Musk interferes in politics in a way that runs counter to Tesla's stated mission and values.

In California, Tesla's sales fell 12 percent last year, the year Musk attacked the government of California, a U.S. state that played a crucial role in helping the automaker survive its turbulent early years and become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

In Germany - where new car registrations fell 41 percent last year and 59 percent in January - the billionaire is a strong supporter of the AfD, which doubts the harmfulness of CO2 emissions. And in the UK - now Europe's largest market for electric cars - Musk has allied himself with politicians who are calling for an end to net-zero targets and calling measures to encourage the adoption of electric cars a "war on drivers."

"Tesla's biggest challenge in 2025 is not technology, but perception," says Jacob Falkencrone, Global Head of Investment Strategy at Saxo — a Danish bank with more than 105 billion euros in client assets. "Elon Musk's political baggage is now weighing on sales, brand loyalty and investor confidence."

Musk's polarizing behavior is nothing new — nor are the signs that many of his customers have taken a negative attitude toward him. In 2023, Bloomberg News surveyed more than 5,000 Tesla owners. The result: Of all the topics consumers had been surveyed about four years earlier, opinions of Musk saw the biggest drop.

But the backlash against Musk has reached a new dimension this year. Activists projected images of Musk's gesture onto the outside of the Tesla factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg - an action that was viewed millions of times on his social media platform X. Tesla showrooms were vandalized in the Netherlands, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, and protests took place at dozens of the company's US branches over the weekend.

"I don't know if there has ever been a greater destruction of brand equity in such a short period of time," said Tom Price, a resident of Berkeley, California, who showed up at a protest in the city with a "Don't Drive DOGE" sign. "Tesla has become a four-wheeled billboard for the self-immolation of our democracy."

According to Pew Research, a majority of Americans now have a negative attitude toward Musk. "I used to be revered by the left," Musk said in a joint Fox interview with U.S. President Donald Trump that aired last week. "That's less the case today."

Still, Tesla management told investors last month that its auto business is expected to return to growth this year. Part of the sales weakness at the beginning of the year was due to the redesign of production lines for its most popular vehicle — the Model Y — which has been redesigned. The upgrade of all four factories that assemble the SUV will result in a production outage of several weeks this quarter, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said.

Tesla also told investors that production of cheaper models will begin in the first half of this year. Details about the vehicles were barely disclosed. The automaker's shares have fallen 37 percent since their record high in mid-December. However, they are up around 20 percent since the election on November 5.

Some consumers won't even look at Tesla's new models. Eric Thurber, a San Francisco Bay Area resident who bought a Model 3 in 2021, had expected to keep his car for at least five or six years. After Inauguration Day, he decided to sell it at a big loss. "I couldn't stand what Elon Musk was doing anymore," the 58-year-old said.

Micah Barber — a college professor in Austin, where Musk moved Tesla's headquarters in late 2021 — currently drives a gasoline-powered Chevrolet Equinox SUV and wants the family's next vehicle to be an electric vehicle. Although he admires the innovations Tesla has brought to the auto industry, he has ruled out buying one of the company's cars because of Musk. "He has become one of the most dangerous people in our country," Barber, 43, said of Musk at a rally held outside the Tesla showroom in the Texas capital this month.

The brands gaining market share at Tesla's expense vary by market. In California, Honda and Hyundai gained the state's largest market share for electric cars last year. In Germany, VW , Seat and Skoda of Volkswagen AG , and the brand of the same name of BMW AG recorded the largest sales increases in January.

Tae Helton, who owns a Model 3, was keen to buy cars built near his Bay Area home — including by friends who work at the Tesla factory. He cautiously decided to buy another of the company's cars during his family's first test drive last year. Although he had noticed some warning signs from Musk when he ordered the sedan in May, he was not inclined to hold it against the company as a whole.

After Musk increased his political activity, the HR professional was hesitant to choose the Tesla brand again. His family decided to lease a Hyundai Ioniq 5 instead. "I've always felt that if my vote doesn't affect what I want, I might as well vote with my wallet, whether it's Tesla or something else," Helton said. "Lately, I've been voting with my wallet."