Ross Gerber, the President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management and a Tesla Inc TSLA bull and investor, believes that the “extreme” behavior of CEO Elon Musk might pose a risk to Tesla’s sales.
What Happened: “If Musk’s behavior continues to get more and more extreme, that is a risk to Tesla’s sales. But the bottom line, as George Gianarikas (Canaccord Genuity analyst) pointed out, it’s the best vehicle on the road, it’s the best value on the road,” Gerber said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Thursday.
While a few consumers will simply continue to buy Tesla because it offers the best value, others will have to settle for another electric vehicle just because they do not like the CEO, Gerber said.
Gerber, for one, announced in November that he would swap his Model Y with a Rivian R1S SUV after Musk’s support for an anti-semitic post on X, which accused Jewish communities of promoting hatred against whites. "I've never had this with any company I've ever invested in ever in my life where the CEO of the company himself does so many detrimental things that are destroying the brand,” Gerber then said.
Musk later apologized for the post, but Gerber took delivery of his new SUV earlier this month.
“Tesla is Tesla and Elon is Elon. I think the best thing Tesla can do is to continue to differentiate its brand as Tesla. Elon (now) is basically the face of the brand and the voice of the brand…,” Gerber noted. “But the bottom line is, you can’t diminish the effect of the damage that he has caused.”
He, however, continues to be very bullish on Tesla in the long term.
Why It Matters: Contrary to Gerber’s opinions, a recent study from Heatmap shows that EV buyers love Tesla cars irrespective of what the billionaire does or says.
As per the study, among respondents who want to purchase an EV, 38% said that Musk has no impact on whether they would buy or lease a Tesla. 35% even said that Musk makes them more likely to buy one of his vehicles, while only 27% said that the CEO made them less likely to get a Tesla car.
However, the survey for the study was conducted between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13, before Musk’s anti-semitic remarks or his reinstatement of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X.
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