Who’d have thought it?  Tesla doing a Ratner.

In a world of Green-tomorrows, Tesla should be ideally placed as the must-have automobile for a carbon-less future.  The electric equivalent of the Ford Model T.  And, with their share price going through the roof upon the election of a second Trump administration, it appeared their market domination was guaranteed.  But, only a few short weeks later and Tesla shares have crashed, their cars are being burnt on city streets, and Tesla owners are removing their car’s insignia in order to disguise the brand.

How quickly can a brand become toxic.

Back in 1991, it only took a few jokey comments by Gerald Ratner at an Institute of Directors conference, followed up by an appearance on a TV chat show where he attempted to apologise for the same comments, to bring about the end of the previously successful Ratners the Jewellers brand.  For Tesla, their brand is intimately linked to Elon Musk.  And the more Musk hitches his fortunes to a Trump administration, the more he alienates precisely the kind of people who buy Tesla cars.  Historically, a far greater number of Teslas have been sold in traditionally Democrat-voting states in the US than to states who typically vote Republican.  It will be interesting to see how many Democrats remain loyal to the Tesla brand while their CEO continues to court “Drill, baby, drill” Trump.

Musk will only know if his brand is irretrievably dead and buried when the next Suni and Butch stranded aboard the International Space Station greet his SpaceX rescue mission with the words: “Nah, do you know what, we’ll wait for the next passing Blue Origin.”

© Simon Turner-Tree

Simon Turner-Tree prefers David Bowie’s Starman.