As Tesla sees cratering sales and faltering investor confidence, marketing experts say CEO Elon Musk has repelled the precise political demographic mostly likely to buy his vehicles — and that the path to recovery may not be easy.
Aside from Musk selling his 13% stake in Tesla or ceasing his political activities, brand experts told Business Insider that it may be a good idea for Tesla to change its name and logo to leave its past behind — a practice common to airlines after major disasters.
“Tesla is more politically skewed than any other brand, and it is clearly skewed liberal,” David J. Reibstein, Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School, told Business Insider, “and they have successfully alienated themselves from their customer base.”
Musk has drawn public ire over his involvement with the White House DOGE office, which rapidly laid off tens of thousands of federal workers, endangered programs like Social Security, and imperiled conservation causes. The Environmental Protection Agency alone canceled more than 400 grants under DOGE.
“A lot of the people who were buying Teslas are those concerned about climate change. A lot of the Republicans don’t believe in climate change, and so trying to get some of the Republicans to replace the Democrats as the customers is a big step forward,” Reibstein added.
Not only are Tesla showrooms worldwide regularly surrounded by protesters from the Tesla Takedown movement, but the company also reported a 13% drop in quarterly sales in the US between January and March compared to the same period in 2024. This marks Tesla’s weakest performance since early 2022.
In Europe, Tesla lost more than 40% of its sales in January and February compared to the same two months last year.
Tesla blamed the slowdown on production line reconfigurations ahead of an anticipated Model Y refresh. Still, its stock price also suggests investors are concerned about Musk’s commitment to the company, given his focus on DOGE.
As of the market closing on April 4, Tesla stocks had already lost about 36% of their value since the beginning of 2025. Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that Musk’s work in the White House “is not even close to done” and that he will remain a “friend and adviser” to the administration.
The danger of a one-face brand
While there have been individual acts of vandalism against Tesla showrooms and cars, many Tesla Takedown organizers advocate for peaceful protests and focus the heat on Musk. To them, a boycott against Tesla cars is more of a tool to create pressure and financial damage for Musk than spray-painting Cybertrucks.
Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst who has consistently been bullish about Tesla’s long-term prospects, wrote in a joint note in March that the EV maker is “going through a crisis” and facing a “defining chapter.”
He added that he thinks Musk is the “one person who can fix it” and that the outcome depends on Musk.
Branding experts have said that having a single individual represent a brand, like Musk represents Tesla, is at best a risk and at worst a liability.
“100% of the communication of Tesla today in Europe is created by the buzz around Musk,” Jean-Noel Kapferer, an Emeritus professor of marketing at HEC Paris, told BI. Kapferer said Musk is making Tesla cars a “negative luxury” and leading some to call the company “Tesmusk.”
“A brand is built by customers, not companies,” said Marty Neumeier, author and Director of CEO Branding for Liquid Agency. “So when Musk appeared to change from a ‘progressive genius’ to an ‘arrogant tyrant,’ putting himself above the car and its customers, he changed the meaning of the brand.”
Taking a page from airline companies
Marketing experts say it’s not too late for Tesla to rebrand and bounce back, but most routes toward recovery may require significant concessions from Musk.
Lars Perner, an assistant professor of Clinical Marketing at the University of Southern California, told BI that the most obvious solution would be for Musk to sell his shares and allow someone less conspicuous to take over as CEO. This move could make Tesla “worth considerably more” without Musk’s “alienation of the core market.”
Reibstein, the Wharton professor, said another solution would be for Tesla to change its name and logo — essentially taking a page from the playbook of airline companies that have experienced major accidents.
For example, after a 1996 ValuJet Airlines crash in Florida killed all 110 passengers on board, the company acquired AirTran Airways and simply took the new acquisition’s name.
Corporate Airlines became RegionsAir when a flight crashed in Missouri and resulted in 13 fatalities in October 2004.
In 2014, Malaysia Airlines considered renaming itself after it lost two planes — flight MH370, which disappeared over the Indian Ocean, and flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russia separatists.
Ryanair, one of the world’s largest airlines, renamed its Boeing 737 Max jets “737-8200” in 2019 after 2 fatal crashes spooked customers.
Reibstein said that one of the few examples he could think of when a brand so closely tied to a tarnished name bounced back without really distancing itself from its past was when Martha Stewart — eponymous to her home decor and culinary products empire — was convicted of lying to federal investigators.
“Everybody anticipated that was going to be the brand’s demise when she went to jail,” said Reibstein. “But when she came back, somehow she’s been able to rehabilitate the brand.”
Aside from solutions that mainly hinge on Musk, Neumeier said that the Cybertruck, the stainless steel-clad vehicle that has already faced multiple recalls, also needs to go.
“To most customers, it looks like it came from another planet, and not a nice one,” said Neumeier of Cybertrucks, “It’s now the de facto symbol of ‘American fascism,’ as some are calling Musk’s vision for the future.”
