Three things are no secret: 1) Elon Musk benefits more than any other individual from Tesla’s success, 2) Elon Musk has gotten extremely involved in political matters (emphasis on “extremely”), and 3) many people won’t buy Tesla products because of those first two facts.
New research from JW Surety Bonds finds that 1 out of 4 Americans “avoid Tesla’s technology due to their opinions on Elon Musk.” That’s a full quarter of the US public that won’t consider great electric vehicles, including the best selling vehicle in the world, because of Musk’s highly abnormal involvement in US politics.
Before we get to more of the research, it should also be noted that Musk has been getting more and more involved, including in highly abnormal and extremely right-wing ways, in European politics — in the UK, Italy, Germany, and other major auto markets. Without a doubt, this is starting to impact consumer behavior in Europe as well.
I can’t think of anything else as significant in consumer product sales. Yes, there are some other highly politically engaged business people, but they aren’t so directly involved or tied to significant mass-market products. (I’m not counting the MyPillow guy, for example.) There are founders and CEOs of major corporations who are known political actors, but not so openly and loudly that they draw widely significant scrutiny or tarnish the brand they represent.
VW ID series looks very promising, all the people I know who have one are pretty happy with it.
I have owned VWs in the past and been pretty happy with them, however, the last reviews I’ve seen of the ID series indicated there were still some software and build quality issues to iron out.
The front runner for me at the moment is the Polestar 2 - the latest refresh has switched to RWD from FWD and upgraded the motor and battery, which is now 82kWh (about twice the capacity of my current car), and as a result now promises a real world range of somewhere between 200-300 miles depending on conditions - that should be enough to get me from my place to my parents in just about a single charge, whereas currently I need to stop twice en-route.
It’s not priced as competitively as a Model 3, but it’s probably its nearest competitor at the moment. I’ll have to make a call about what I want to do in the next month or two, as there is an upcoming change to vehicle tax over here which would make any EV in this price bracket make less financial sense if purchased after the cutoff date. (Tesla, predictably, have snuck their base level Model 3 in just below this threshold.)