“I’ve defended you guys a lot over time, and also you make nice merchandise, however even I can’t stick up for you anymore,” she acknowledged.
Róbertsdóttir, now a software program developer for Icelandic air site visitors management firm Isavia, began her tech profession as founding father of Iowa-based Celadon Applications. This 2009 startup developed software program for electrical autos. A protracted-time Tesla stockholder, one in every of her resolutions was put to the vote at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in 2023, calling on Tesla’s board to launch a succession plan for Musk and different “key individuals” whose habits might create a threat for the corporate and shareholders.
“When folks take a look at this firm,” she said at the meeting, “they see the corporate as a synonym for its CEO.” (The board advisable rejecting the decision, and it was duly voted down.)
Whereas some shareholders have already voted with their ft—in January, Dutch civil service pension fund ABP sold its €782 million stake in Tesla, as an illustration—most nonetheless appear unbothered by Musk’s trolling, or his obvious takeover of the US authorities’s govt department with the assistance of younger coders. Musk’s “pedo man” feedback in opposition to a British cave rescue diver, successfully defended in a 2019 defamation trial, didn’t ruffle that many shareholder feathers, however it’s more durable to disregard gross sales cull calls.
In late January, Poland’s sports activities and tourism minister Sławomir Nitras lobbied for a Tesla boycott. “There isn’t any justification for any cheap Pole to proceed buying Teslas,” he mentioned.
In Germany, the place Musk has brought on outrage by endorsing far-right political social gathering Different for Germany (AfD), going as far as to seem as a shock video visitor on the social gathering’s nationwide election marketing campaign launch final month, a number of corporations have reduce ties with Tesla. Drugstore chain Rossmann, with 4,700 shops throughout Europe, has changed Tesla in its electrical fleet with different EV manufacturers, citing the “incompatibility” of its company values and Musk’s ideology.
German power firm LichtBlick revealed an uncoupling from Tesla on a LinkedIn post. “We’re pulling the plug on Tesla autos in our fleet,” mentioned the announcement, with the agency’s actual property head, Kevin Lütje, clarifying that “Elon Musk’s help of Donald Trump and his suggestion to vote for a right-wing populist and right-wing extremist social gathering … is by no means appropriate with LichtBlick’s values.” He acknowledged that “local weather safety and electromobility are extraordinarily vital to us, however within the future we might be counting on suppliers apart from Tesla.”
Such boycotts profit Tesla’s rivals. “We’ve seen a rise in folks writing to us and switching to Polestar in latest months,” Polestar’s German CEO Michael Lohscheller tells WIRED. Lohscheller called Musk’s endorsement of AfD “completely unacceptable.”
There are numerous causes for Tesla’s waning fortunes in Europe—together with stale mannequin line-up (Geely’s Gothenburg-developed Zeekr 7X SUV has extra bells and whistles than a Mannequin Y) and expense (a Mannequin 3 prices €39,990 in Europe, whereas many higher EVs are biting into this worth level)—however Musk’s regular descent from real-life Tony Stark to MAGA energy dealer appears to be a key cause for Tesla’s present precipitous fall from grace.
Tesla gross sales dropped 13 % throughout the entire European Union in 2024, in accordance with data from the industry body ACEA, and identical to in Spain and France, in lots of key markets the autumn remains to be steeper. In line with the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, Tesla registered only one,277 new automobiles in Germany in January, a year-on-year drop of 59.5 %.
Tesla was contacted for this piece and didn’t reply, however there appears to be no gentle on the finish of the tunnel for Tesla gross sales in Europe. A latest survey by Dutch information outlet EenVandaag bought responses from 432 Tesla drivers. Some “31 % are both considering promoting their automobile or have already executed so,” the survey discovered. Forty % of householders felt embarrassed to personal a Tesla. By any measure, these are statistics that no automobile firm desires to personal.
