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2025-10-29 08:36:32
[Study Shows Musk's Partisan Politics Costs Tesla 1 Million Fewer Cars in the US] Since acquiring Twitter (later renamed X) in 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's highly partisan political actions have severely damaged Tesla's sales in the United States, highlighting the deep intertwining of Tesla's fate and his personal image. A working paper by Yale University economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) suggests that without what researchers call the "Musk partisan effect," Tesla's sales in the US between October 2022 and April 2025 would have increased by 67% to 83%, or approximately 1 million to 1.26 million vehicles. The study found that this effect also boosted sales of competing electric and hybrid vehicles by approximately 17% to 22% as Democratic-leaning buyers turned away from Tesla. Yale researchers believe the decline in Tesla sales is related to Musk's increasingly partisan behavior, including his donations of approximately $300 million to Republican candidates and his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during the Trump administration. The report cited surveys showing that Musk's political stance has alienated environmentally conscious Democratic buyers, who have historically been Tesla's strongest base.
