Tesla CEO Elon Musk has seemingly been in the headlines for almost everything except his leadership of the electric vehicle (EV) giant in recent months, following his backing and support of now-US President Donald Trump.
Mr Musk came out in support of President Trump following the latter’s near-assassination during the election campaign, which subsequently led to the billionaire CEO being unexpectedly given a role in the new US Government.
Outside of this, Mr Musk has been as vocal as ever on X (formerly Twitter) which he owns, often backing political figures and parties on the far-right side of the spectrum.
While Tesla share prices remain high, it has reportedly also resulted in some Tesla owners selling their vehicles or prospective customers cancelling orders so as not to be associated with his ideology – leaving an opportunity for other brands to scoop up sales.
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Elon Musk
It’s those customers – who have been made aware about the advantages of EV ownership but don’t want to buy something which helps line the pockets of the world’s richest person – that Swedish-Chinese brand Polestar believes it can persuade into its own cars.
Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller, who assumed the role amid financial turmoil last year, told Bloomberg his brand has an opportunity to capitalise on this resentment against Mr Musk and Tesla.
“We get a lot of people writing that they don’t like all this,” Mr Lohsceller said of Mr Musk’s political stance.
“For Germany, somebody outside of Germany endorsing right-wing political parties [such as the AdF] is a big thing.
“You want to know what I think about it? I think it’s totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. You just don’t do that. This is pure arrogance, and these things will not work.”
Michael Lohscheller
Mr Lohscheller – who was born in Germany and worked for Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Opel, Vinfast and Nikola prior to Polestar – also told Bloomberg he has informed salespeople to specifically target disgruntled Tesla customers.
However, the German executive said Mr Musk is a “very successful businessman” and “done incredible things with Tesla,” which has consistently been the biggest driver of EV sales globally.
In Australia, Polestar managing director Scott Maynard offered a softer approach than his boss, telling CarExpert that his brand and Tesla operate in different parts of the market.
“That brand [Tesla] has done so much for the education of drivers and the accessibility of electric vehicles to the Australian new-car market,” Mr Maynard said.
“There’s some really important ground that’s been gained by Elon’s brand.
Polestar 4
“We certainly see there is some pick-up in our brand from some of those customers, but we continue to concentrate on our own market, which is that upper premium market, and less about the volume side.
“Elon’s brand really pushed hard into that volume, and to good effect, so we salute that. But our customers live in an upper premium space, and we’re attracting a lot of customers from those traditional luxury brands, as well as from the Tesla brand as well.”
Last year, Tesla sold 38,347 vehicles, accounting for 42 per cent of the Australian EV market, despite a drop of 16.9 per cent compared to the year prior.
Across the same period, Polestar sold just 1713 EVs, a 30.3 per cent drop.
