Elon Musk interviewed Donald Trump on “X”, a debate that lasted two and a half hours and for which a following of one billion visits was announced. The number one of Tesla he made no secret of his support for the tycoon, but he also offered the same space to the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris. Activism gives the manager visibility, but it is not clear whether his “empire” also benefits.
Before Sixt And Hertzthe multinationals of thecar rentalAnd SAPthe software giant, and now Rossmanthe German family business that controls one of the largest chains of pharmacies in Europe, of which the Hong Kong-based As Watson Group is a 40% shareholder, have in fact downloaded Tesla. Raoul Rossmann, the founder’s nearly 40-year-old son, has announced that the company will abandon the American manufacturer’s electric vehicles for “political” reasons, namely “the incompatibility between the statements of CEO Elon Musk and the values that Tesla represents with its products.”
The company’s spokesperson stressed that the manager of South African origins does not hide “his support to Donald Trump”, who has repeatedly called the change “a hoax”: “This position – Rossmann noted – is in stark contrast with Tesla’s mission to help protect the environment through the production of electric cars”.
From an economic point of view, the decision will have an irrelevant impact on the balance sheets of the American manufacturer, because the Tesla fleet in service currently consists of 34 cars: the vehicles will remain, but no more will be purchased. The choices, less political and more “accounting” by Sixt, Hertz and SAP, are linked to the (not too high) demand for rental of electric cars, to the (high) management costs and to the (too fluctuating) residual value due to the various interventions on the price lists.
The extent of the repercussions of support for Trump are more difficult to quantify, also because as the owner of “X” (formerly Twitter) Musk can “dialogue” more or less directly with nearly 190 million followers. The manager has never worried too much about his externalizations polarizing, but a recent survey conducted in the United States allows us to calculate the cost in terms of reputation for Tesla. Between January and July, favorability among Democratic voters fell from 39% to 16%, while among Republican voters it fell from 36% to 23%. According to an American salesman, Mark Spiegel, quoted by Yahoo, Musk has alienated a large part of his customer base: “It will end up killing the entire business”.
The data for the first half of the year reveal “only” that despite an 8% drop in production (844,202 units), sales fell by 7% (830,766: in the whole of 2023, deliveries exceeded 1.8 million for the first time).political commitment Musk’s 78-year-old also induced Robert Reichformer Secretary of Labor in the executive led by Bill Clinton and later among Barack Obama’s advisors at the White House, to urge a sort of obstructionism. He did so directly from the columns ofEconomist with an editorial with the telling title: “Elon Musk is spending millions to elect Trump. Let’s boycott his companies.” The former university professor closed the article with an exhortation: “Use your economic power. Boycott Tesla and tell advertisers to boycott X.”
Musk, who is naturally entitled to intervene in the public debate like anyone else even if he is not just any user and has not only economic power but also visibility and global influence, could also hide a strategy of marketing. For years a visionary saint of progressivism, whose soul is certainly more sensitive to electric mobilitythe manager may now have also changed direction for commercial reasons, to go hunting for a new segment of customers, who until now have been rather resistant to battery-powered vehicles. United Kingdomwhere Musk has triggered a series of racist protests media challenge with the new prime minister, Labour’s Keir Starmer, could provide interesting insights. Buying a car risks becoming a political action.
