Tesla’s historic decline under Elon Musk has seen the electric vehicle maker ranked as the least trusted EV brand in the US, according to a new survey.
Nearly half of the participants in the latest Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report said they did not trust Tesla, while more than a third who said they had a negative perception.
The company also had the lowest perceived safety rating of any major EV manufacturer, following several high-profile accidents.
Tesla’s brand reputation has been impacted by Mr Musk’s association with Donald Trump, having formed the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the US President’s administration.
The pair’s relationship has deteriorated since the Tesla boss stepped back from the role in May, however he continues to support far right politicians in Europe and has signalled his intention to remain in US politics through a new political party.
“Elon Musk seemed poised to exit politics, promising that the reputational hit Tesla took during his time in the Trump administration would fade,” the report noted.
“But with the launch of Musk’s ‘America Party’, Tesla’s consumer perception recovery remains a nonrecovery.”
Just a quarter of participants in the survey said they had a positive view of Tesla, compared to more than a third who said they had a negative perception.
A separate report from an Axios Harris poll in May revealed that Tesla’s brand reputation among US adults had fallen from ‘very good’ in 2022 to ‘poor’ in 2025.
Tesla’s drop in reputation appears to have contributed to falling sales in the US and Europe, with the company’s latest quarterly report revealing that customer deliveries had fallen by 14 per cent in the second quarter of the year.
It was the worst quarterly decline in the company’s history, and means that Tesla is now way behind its Chinese rival BYD when it comes to global deliveries.
This poor performance is expected to continue for the rest of the year, according to some market analysts, with projections from Checkpoint Research forecasting a 10 per cent year-on-year decline in sales in 2025.
This comes despite global EV sales soaring in recent years, as demonstrated by data from the International Energy Agency that shows demand for non-combustion engine cars at record levels.
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