Why Are Tesla Owners Selling Their Model 3s? Here's What One Survey Revealed About Their Perception Of Elon Musk.

Zinger Key Points
  • A survey shows Tesla Model 3 owners, on the whole, love their vehicles.
  • It also, however, shows that several former Tesla owners have left the brand due to Elon Musk.

Since launching in July 2017, the Model 3 from Tesla Inc TSLA has been one of the bestselling electric vehicles of all time.

A recent Bloomberg survey reveals how Model 3 owners have felt about the company over time — and Tesla CEO Elon Musk might not love the results.

What Happened: The Model 3 and Model Y continue to be Tesla's bestselling models and big reasons why the company has dominated the market share for electric vehicles around the world.

A Bloomberg survey of more than 5,600 Tesla Model 3 owners, however, showed some interesting results. 

According to the report, the Model 3 received strong scores based on the following indicators (with 5 being the best):

Performance: 4.95

Ease of Use: 4.83

Design: 4.77

Reliability: 4.69

The bad news, however, is that the Model 3 owners are becoming less fond of Musk, whom they said could influence their decision to leave Tesla and switch to another automotive brand. 

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The survey found that 96% of Model 3 owners with positive views of Musk said they would buy a Tesla again. On the flip side, 91% of Model 3 owners who had unfavorable opinions of the billionaire entrepreneur said they would not buy a Tesla again.

Some of the questions that were asked in the 2023 survey were the same from the those in the 2019 survey, in order to track how Tesla owners felt over time. 

The survey found that 75% of Model 3 owners would consider buying another Tesla vehicle. The survey also found that a number of the people originally polled in 2019 no longer own a Tesla vehicle. Those people shared the biggest contributing factors to their decision, which were:

Disapproval of Musk: 21.5%

Concerns about quality or service: 18.7%

Unhappy with Tesla’s brand perception: 17.8%

Cost too high: 13.1%

Other: 11.2%

Tesla didn’t offer the style of vehicle needed: 10.3%

Switched to gasoline vehicle for convenience: 7.5%

Related Link: Here's How Many Tesla Shares You Need To Own To Equal 1% Of Elon Musk's Wealth

The Twitter Influence Problem: One of the overlying themes from the survey was the role that Musk’s tweets and acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion have played in the opinions of Model 3 owners.

Here’s a look at some of the responses to Musk's activity on Twitter, where he is the most followed person (1 was strongly agree, 2 was agree, 3 was neutral).

Elon Musk should stop tweeting: 2.50

Elon Musk should stay out of politics: 2.14

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been a distraction from his responsibilities at Tesla: 2.00

One question in the survey centered on Musk’s ownership of Twitter and asked if it was a positive development. The question received a 2.20 rating out of 5, with 5 being strongly agree. The acquisition of Twitter by Musk has been criticized by many Tesla analysts and investors.

The survey showed that, while Tesla is still well beloved by Model 3 owners, there is a number of people who have since left the brand due to Musk. 

Read Next: Here's How Many Vehicles Tesla Has Sold And Delivered In Each Quarter Since 2019 

Photo: Shutterstock

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