The company has let over 1,000 people answer how they view Elon Musk and electric car giant Tesla, where he is the largest owner, and compared with an earlier survey from January – and the result is clear:
Musk's much-talked-about gesture from the stage during Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony has made Swedes re-evaluate their image of Tesla.
The proportion of those who have a positive attitude towards Tesla fell by 8 percentage points to 11 percent, and the proportion of those who have a negative attitude towards the car brand increased by as much as 16 percentage points. 63 percent of Swedes now have a negative image of Tesla.
The largest negative attitude change has occurred among young people (18-34 years) and younger middle-aged people (35-49 years).
It's going to be very important target groups for Tesla, so in that sense, it's very unfortunate for the brand, says Ieva Englund, brand expert and business advisor at Novus, to TT.
The Tesla brand takes on a disproportionately large part of the negative associations, despite the criticism primarily being directed at Elon Musk. In data from Retriever, we see that in a third of all articles about him, Tesla is also mentioned, which is remarkable, she continues.
For two years in a row, the Tesla Model Y has been Sweden's best-selling car – but the question is whether the controversies surrounding Elon Musk will make the brand fall from the throne.
One usually says that a major loss of confidence for a brand affects the business, but it depends on how this is handled now, says Ieva Englund.
63 percent answered that they are negatively inclined.
22 percent answered that they are neutrally inclined.
11 percent answered that they are positively inclined.
Source: Novus
