Tesla shareholders must be wondering: will Elon Musk ever be quiet?
German pharmacy chain Rossman says it will no longer buy Teslas for its fleet due to Musk’s support for Donald Trump. Trump has “repeatedly described climate change as a hoax”, it said, in “stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection”.
Rossman’s decision won’t dent Tesla’s bottom line, but it’s another example of how Musk is turning buyers off his companies.
That reputational damage will only increase after Musk’s comments on Britain’s race riots. “Civil war is inevitable” in the UK, he said, before describing Keir Starmer as “two-tier Kier”, a reference to far-right claims that the police are biased in their treatment of specific populations.
Ironically, these toxic comments were followed by an announcement that X/Twitter is suing a group of major advertisers, claiming they organised a boycott that led to the company losing “billions of dollars in advertising revenue”.
One of those advertisers is Unilever, which pulled back from social media advertising as far back as 2020. Previously, it suffered a backlash when its Dove soap ads on Facebook were placed alongside posts promoting rape and domestic abuse.
Given such incidents, it’s hardly surprising Musk’s bid to make X a platform for unfiltered speech has driven away advertisers. Advertisers are free to advertise where they want to advertise. Musk’s wounds are entirely self-inflicted.
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