Disgust at the CEO’s rightwing activism is casting a pall but conservatives are no more likely to buy EVs
US liberals have become so disgusted with Tesla since Elon Musk’s rightward turn that they are now not only far less likely to purchase the car brand but also less willing to buy any type of electric car, new research has found.
The popularity of Tesla among liberal-minded Americans has plummeted since Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and the world’s richest person, allied himself with Donald Trump and helped propel the president to election victory last year.
While liberals reported mostly positive intentions around buying an electric car in August 2023, their overall support for EVs eroded in the wake of a collapse in their opinion of Teslas, according to the new study, which polled Americans on an array of environmental actions.
Yeah, the options for EV in the US are pretty horrible, and it’s mainly because US manufacturers want to have their cake and eat it as well. They don’t want to invest in EV manufacturing, which imo is fine. We shouldn’t have to prod corporations into remaining relevant. However, they are also spending millions of dollars lobbying the government into protecting their market from competitors and into overturning climate initiatives.
We won’t ever see these corporations invest in EV until an outside player forces their hands. Amazing how quickly the faux love of Free market economics became a thing of the past the moment there’s an actual threat of competition.
Best case scenario imo is that America car manufacturers shit the bed so hard that Americans actually begin to start to care about public transportation. Trains are the most effective and efficient mode of transportation and always have been, ev are just a band-aid.