Elon Musk’s plunging popularity since he bought social media platform Twitter is putting Australians off buying Tesla cars, ABC News reported.
A new opinion poll has revealed Tesla’s “brand health” in Australia has worsened over the past 15 months and is now negative, meaning the public has generally bad associations with the brand, the story continued. At the same time, Tesla’s Australian sales are down, while the wider EV market is booming.
It’s been a dramatic fall from grace for Tesla, the report went on, as only two years ago the US auto firm was one of the few suppliers of EVs to Australia and was seen as a clean energy pioneer.
But public opinion began to shift in late 2022 when the multi-billionaire bought Twitter, renamed it X, and overhauled its moderation policies, allowing climate misinformation, conspiracy theories and far-right hate speech to proliferate, the pollsters said.
- By Sean O’Meara
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