A Tesla dealership displays new Tesla vehicles on December 20, 2024 in Corte Madera, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
value Tesla’s The brand fell 26% in 2024, its second straight year of declines, as factors including an aging vehicle lineup, and CEO Musk’s “Confrontation,” according to research and advisory firm Brand Finance.
Tesla’s brand value is now estimated at $43 billion, down from $58.3 billion in early 2024 and $66.2 billion in early 2023, the company said in its annual rankings. toyota Researchers found that Ford Motor Co. is the most valuable car brand, worth $64.7 billion, followed by Mercedes at $53 billion.
London-based Brand Finance conducts comprehensive consumer surveys and analyzes the financials of thousands of companies, looking at revenue, licensing agreements, profit margins and more to estimate a brand’s monetary value. The assessment includes corporate brands and sub-brands associated with individual product lines.
As part of this year’s ranking of the company, Brand Finance analyzed answers from about 175,000 survey respondents around the world, including about 16,000 people who shared their views on Tesla.
The results show that consumers’ perceptions Tesla Very different from Wall Street’s assessment.
Tesla’s stock price soared 63% last year, reaching a record high in December, and investors rushed to buy Tesla shares. Donald Trump’s Last month’s election victory. Musk donated $277 million to help propel Trump and other Republican candidates to victory and is poised to wield influence in government to benefit his companies.
When it comes to the wider public, Brand Finance chief executive David Haigh said Musk’s political rhetoric and public image have their shortcomings.
“Some people think he’s great, but a lot of people don’t,” Hager said. “If you were buying an electric car, his personality would probably influence your opinion of whether you wanted to buy one of his company’s cars, but it’s just one of many factors.”
Brand Finance found that on key metrics such as “consideration,” “reputation” and “recommendation,” Tesla’s scores fell across the board in the main markets where it operates factories and sells cars – the United States, Europe and Asia.
On December 5, 2024, Musk walked on Capitol Hill when meeting with elected Senate Republican leader John Thune (R-SD) in Washington, the United States.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
Consideration scores show whether people would consider purchasing a product from a brand. Reputation score shows how highly respondents rate a brand on average (on a scale of 1 to 10).
Tesla’s score in Europe has dropped significantly, with the average consideration score falling from 21% to 16% from 2024 to 2025.
Rivals Mercedes and BYD beat Tesla, especially in consideration and recommendation scores outside the U.S.
However, Tesla maintains a high loyalty score of 90% in the United States. This means customers who already own a Tesla vehicle will likely continue to drive the vehicle over the next 12 months. But Tesla’s recommended rating in the United States dropped from 8.2 out of 10 to 4.3.
Hager said the decline in Tesla’s score and brand value indicated the company’s “waning appeal.” The risk, he said, is that “Tesla won’t be able to sell as much product and sell it at as high a price as it did before.”
There are already troubling signs. Tesla vehicle delivery volume in 2024 Despite increased global demand for pure electric vehicles, vehicle sales fell by about 1% to 1.79 million units. According to data from Cox Automotive, Tesla’s electric vehicle market share in the United States fell to 49% from 55% a year ago.
Tesla’s Brand Strength Index score also dropped from just over 80 points to just under 65 points, according to Brand Finance.
“Unless Tesla can launch a slew of new products that really get consumers excited, and unless they can mitigate some of the confrontation their leader has created, they will be seen as past their prime and starting to decline,” Hager said. “explain.
Measuring musk
Musk has not limited his political activities to the United States, where he has reportedly been frequent contact Working with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, praising and working with Italian President Giorgio Meloni, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Argentinian President Javier Mire, and with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a public appearance together.
He recently Agree Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and pressured British officials to release anti-immigration figures Tommy Robinsona convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record, is out of prison.
In Trump’s public speech after his inauguration on Monday, Musk uses a gesture repeatedly Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, whose research focuses on fascism, describes it as “a kind of Nazi salute, very militant”. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
When it comes to consumer attitudes, “There’s a small group of people who say, I really don’t care what they do. I just want their product,” Haigh said. “There are other levels of people who care about this issue, and some even say, I won’t touch that product in principle.”
What’s unique about Tesla is the strong connection between the company’s brand and its leader.
For Tesla, “it’s very clear who the CEO is, that person is responsible, and their actions will affect the company’s reputation,” Haig said.
Brand Finance also evaluated other brands led by Musk, including X, aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX, and for the first time evaluated SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network business.
The company estimates that X’s overall brand value fell 26% from $673 million to $498 million. Since 2022 (when the company was still called Twitter), simple awareness of Brand X has dropped from 94% to today’s international level of 78%. Before Musk took over and changed the name, Twitter’s brand value in 2022 was $5.7 billion.
Brand Finance said the name change partly contributed to the overall decline, but the loss of users, advertisers and ad revenue also played a role.
“Twitter is very famous, very popular, and attracts a lot of advertising,” Hague said. “According to our data, overnight when he changed it to X, the value decreased by about 75%. It fell immediately and continued to fall.”
Brand Finance began valuing SpaceX in early 2024, and the company’s brand value grew 11% to $3.8 billion. About 45% of U.S. respondents surveyed were familiar with SpaceX, ranking highly for an aerospace and defense company.
The company found that the Starlink brand, calculated separately from SpaceX, is valued at $2.4 billion. This number is expected to increase as the company continues to add new users and shows continued growth in monthly subscriber revenue.
Brand Finance will publish its Fortune 500 in 2025 A study of the world’s most valuable brands was conducted in Davos on Tuesday.
watch: Why Bank of America downgraded Tesla