For years, Tesla boasted the highest repeat customer rate among major U.S. automakers. However, its once-dominant brand loyalty has sharply declined since CEO Elon Musk publicly backed
Donald Trump, according to exclusive data from research firm S\&P Global Mobility shared with Reuters.
Previously unreported figures show Tesla’s customer loyalty peaked in June 2024, with 73% of Tesla-owning households purchasing another Tesla when buying a new car. But by July, loyalty began to slide after Musk endorsed Trump in the wake of an assassination attempt on the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania.
Tesla’s challenges extend beyond politics. The company's aging lineup faces mounting competition from legacy automakers such as General Motors, Hyundai, and BMW, which have ramped up their electric vehicle offerings. Tesla's only new model since 2020, the angular Cybertruck, has underwhelmed in sales despite Musk’s earlier projections of hundreds of thousands of units sold annually.
During Tesla’s April earnings call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja pointed to a “negative impact of vandalism and unwarranted hostility towards our brand and people,” while also citing “several weeks of lost production” due to factory retooling for a refreshed Model Y.
Musk, on the same call, maintained that “absent macro issues, we don't see any reduction in demand.” However, the loyalty data suggests consumer sentiment may be shifting more than Tesla anticipated. Photo by Ivan Radic, Wikimedia commons.
