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For years Tesla had more repeated US customers than any other important automotive brand, but his loyalty has fallen since CEO Elon Musk approved President Donald Trump last summer, according to the data of the S&P Global Mobility research company shared exclusively with Reuters.The data, which have not been previously reported, show that the loyalty of Tesla customers reached the peak in June 2024, when 73% of the families of Tesla-Proprietaries on the market for a new car purchased another Tesla, according to a S&P analysis of the registration data of vehicles in all 50 states.
That loyalty rate of the industry leading brand began to Nose in July, which the data showed, when Musk approved Trump following an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania on the Republican candidate.
The rate touched 49.9% last March, just below the average of the sector, after Musk launched the government efficiency department of the Trump budget in January and started shooting thousands of government operators. Since then, the loyalty rate of the United States of Tesla has returned up to 57.4% in May, the most recent month is available S&P data, putting it above the average of the sector and about the Toyota itself but behind Chevrolet and Ford.
The S&P Tom Libby analyst called “unprecedented” to see the leader on the run in the loyalty of customers fall so quickly to the average levels of the sector. “I’ve never seen so quickly from such a short period of time,” he said.
Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
The times of the flexion of the Tesla brand suggest that the involvement of the CEO in politics has deactivated customers in the basis of EV -EV’s ecological customers, some analysts said. “If they have democratic tendencies, then they perhaps consider other brands in addition to Tesla,” said Seth Goldstein, Morningstar analyst.
The range of Tesla’s aging models also faces a more rigid competition from a series of electric vehicles from Legacy car manufacturers including general engines, Hyundai and BMW. The only new model that Tesla has released since 2020, its triangular cybertruck, proved to be a flop despite the forecast of Musk of hundreds of thousands of annual sales.
In a call of earnings in April, the CFO of Tesla Vaibhav Taneja identified “the negative impact of vandalism and unjustified hostility towards our brand and people”, but it also said there were “several weeks of lost production” when the company reduced the factories to produce a refresh version of its model Y.
Musk on the April call said that “Macro problems are absent, we don’t see any reduction in demand”.
Sales of Tesla vehicles are overall by decreasing globally and decreased by 8% in the United States in the first five months of 2025, according to S&P. Sales decreased by 33% in the first six months of the year in Europe, where the public recovery to Musk’s politicism was particularly fierce.
The increase in Musk’s political activism was “very bad timing” for Tesla, said Garrett Nelson, a analyst who keeps track of the producer of electric vehicles of the CFRA research, because it came exactly when the company has faced greater competition from the producers of Chinese electric vehicles and other traditional cars. He said that his main concerns for Tesla are his loss of market share and “what can be done to repair the damage to the brand”.
Nosetive loyalty
Tesla remains the leader of the sales of US electric vehicles, but saw his Herod domain as Musk last year deepened the policy and focused Tesla more on the development of autonomous -driving technologies than on new models at affordable prices for human drivers.
Customer loyalty is a carefully observed self-industrial metric because it is “much more expensive” to take new customers from competitors who retain existing ones, said Libbies of S&P.
S&P offers some of the most detailed data of the car shopping sector because it analyzes the registration data of vehicles from all 50 states on a family basis for the home. Unlike the survey data, it follows the transactions of effective vehicles to keep track of the way consumers migrate between brands and models.
From the fourth quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of last year, over 60% of Tesla families purchased another for the next car purchase, the data show. Only another brand – Ford – recorded a quarterly loyalty rate of more than 60% during the period and only once.
Customer defections
S&P data also examine another aspect of the automotive market: which brands and models are removing customers from others and which are losing them?
Until recently, Tesla was in a different stratosphere than other car brands on this metric. For the four years before in July 2024, Tesla, on average, has acquired almost five new families for all those who lost for another brand.
No other brand of a large car manufacturer was not even close: Hyundai’s luxury genesis brand was the best following, acquiring on average 2.8 families for all those who lost, followed by Kia and Hyundai, who acquired on average 1.5 and 1.4 families, respectively, for all those who have lost. Ford, Toyota and Honda have lost more families on average than those they gained during that period.
The average influx of Tesla customers began to decrease in July 2024 together with his loyalty rate. Since February, Tesla has gained less than two families for all forgiveness for the rest of the sector, its lowest level ever, according to data.
“The data clearly show that net migration to Tesla is slowing down,” said Libby.
The brands that now attract more customers Tesla than those who lose against Tesla include Rivian, Polestar, Porsche and Cadillac, show the data.
Brian Mulberry, head of the customer portfolio at the Tesla Zacks Investment Management investor, said he was not worried about Tesla’s long -term earnings because he expects enormous profits from his plans to manage robotasses and authorize autonomous technology to other car manufacturers.
Tesla launched a small robotass test in Austin in June, giving racing to the collected fans and personalities of the Internet, but the service is not available for the public. If Tesla manages to expand the technology, Mulberry said: “There is a case to do that Tesla no longer needs to sell cars and trucks”.
