Customers Dump Tesla As Musk Tweets He's Voting Republican

Jason Simon, anxious to buy an electric vehicle, ordered a Tesla Model 3 in April. He received notification from Tesla that his car was ready in June, but he pulled out of the purchase, forfeiting the $250 order fee he paid.

Photo Insert: Of late, Elon Musk has proven to be both the driving force and the drawback of his companies.

Simon told CNN Business' Matt McFarland on July 13, 2022 that his feelings changed this spring after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced to buy Twitter.

According to Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, consumers form strong bonds with businesses that share their beliefs or represent what they aim to be.

Tesla has benefited from a strong, identity-based devotion among automobile customers, and it competes with leading brands such as Apple and Nike.

"The intensity of the relationship for those that are really into Tesla is off the charts," Reed added. According to interviews with 12 recent car buyers, certain car buyers are increasingly pulled to, or away from, Tesla due to a variety of ideas that align or clash with Musk, including politics, free speech, and company culture.

In recent months, Musk has referred to Democrats as the "party of division & hate," joked about reintroducing cocaine into Coca-Cola, compared Twitter's CEO to Joseph Stalin, challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a one-on-one fight for Ukraine, and warned that "the woke mind virus will destroy civilization."

Simon expressed sympathy for Tesla employees who had shares in the company. Tesla stock has dropped 31% since Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter.

In the same time period, the S&P 500 has dropped 11%. Simon perceived a lack of confidence in Tesla when its busy CEO, Elon Musk, who also runs SpaceX, took on another project.

While Musk has subsequently stated that he wants out of the arrangement, he now faces a lengthy legal struggle if Twitter decides to sue him.

"There's people down the line that aren't him that worked a long time to earn that stock," said Simon, a business executive in Philadelphia who says he's "deadly serious" about his employees getting chances to earn.

"That's real-life stuff to those people," Simon said. "It's pretty uncool."

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