On May 21, Beijing time, Elon Musk won a reputation for himself and Tesla because of his unconventional practices. However, the billionaire's recent political remarks and allegations of sexual harassment against him may hurt the brand image of Tesla in the eyes of some car owners and employees.
Musk on Thursday denied a report on insider's website that he sexually harassed a stewardess in 2016, saying the person making the charge was a liar.
John Smith, former vice president of GM Group and responsible for global product planning, said that if employees chatted around the water dispenser and focused on sexual harassment allegations against musk rather than Tesla products, the final result could be "corrosive" to the Tesla brand.
This week, Tesla was also excluded from the widely tracked S & P 500 ESG index. An executive of the index company said that this was because of racial discrimination within the company and some crashes of Tesla cars. Musk responded that the rating around environmental, social and Governance (ESG) issues was a "scam" and questioned how the index could add oil and gas producers while eliminating an electric vehicle company.
Political stance affects Tesla sales
Just the day before, he also said that he would now vote for the Republican party rather than the Democratic Party, and said that the Democratic Party was a "divided and hateful party". The Democratic Party's political philosophy is relatively left and biases towards liberals. The Republican Party is more right and conservative.
Although he has also been the focus of media attention before, for example, he once called a critic "paedophile" on twitter, the recent controversy has once again raised doubts about whether his outspokenness will affect his personal charm. And given Musk's close relationship with Tesla, will this hurt the automaker's sales, especially in California.
Tesla California plant
California's political position is to the left. It is the stronghold of the Democratic Party and Tesla's largest market. California accounted for nearly 40% of Tesla's U.S. retail registrations last year, according to Experian, an information services company. According to the California Association of new car dealers, Tesla's sales in California increased by nearly 70% last year, accounting for 6.5% of all car sales in the state.
Resist Tesla
On Friday, "resist Tesla" was on Twitter's hot search. Some people claimed that they had cancelled their car orders.
"In the past, I admire his commitment to building a green enterprise that transforms its energy use. Unfortunately, as a focus seeking jet, he is becoming divided and I no longer believe that he is committed to the quality of his products. I will cancel my Tesla order." Twitter user J Yeh said. She claims to be a lawyer and has lived in many cities, including Los Angeles.
Twitter users want to cancel Tesla orders
"You've lost a potential customer," said ute Bauer, a twitter user from Germany, adding in German. "For everyone who sees this tweet, please cancel your order." It is not possible to confirm whether Tesla's orders have been cancelled.
Musk is both good and bad
Given Tesla's strong performance, many institutional investors may support musk, but that doesn't mean some people won't be depressed.
"They did a lot of good things," said Taylor Ogan, CEO of snow bull capital, which owns Tesla. "I was disappointed when it was tarnished by Musk's antics. Musk is the best thing and the worst thing for Tesla."
One Tesla employee, who asked not to be named, said he was disappointed that Musk's efforts outside Tesla seemed to be damaging the carmaker's share price. "The company needs to do something to solve this problem." He said.
On Friday, Tesla's share price fell nearly 9% and its market value evaporated about $66 billion, the lowest level since August last year. Analysts believe that Musk's acquisition of Twitter has a "risk of distraction". On Thursday, musk assured people that he would always think about Tesla.
Jason stomel, founder of cadre, a technology talent agency, said that due to Musk's anti democratic remarks, Tesla and SpaceX employees may also become "a little scared and angry" because California technology company employees tend to favor liberals.
"Not a normal person"
NASA relies on SpaceX spacecraft to send astronauts into space. NASA Director Bill Nelson told on Thursday that musk had a strong executive team at SpaceX and that NASA's cooperation with the company was "going well".
Meanwhile, musk has many fans online. Twitter user @ jvega103 said he was a Republican who owned a Tesla and had just registered a Tesla solar panel. "Thank you for everything." The user wrote on twitter.
This makes some industry observers wonder whether musk and Tesla will simply get rid of these latest disputes as in the past.
"Is musk crazy now, or is he cunning? When the rest of us are playing checkers, he often plays chess, which makes us tend to think he is right," said Erik qualman, a professor at Northwestern University. "Just like musk's famous saying on Saturday night live, 'what, do you think I would be a normal person?'"