What did you leave in your inbox at your last job?
Our client logged into his ex-employee’s inbox to recover a file. What he found exposed a bullying manager, an unowned domain, and a marketing stack he no longer controlled.
The cost of being Elon.
It seems like almost everyone in the world has an opinion on Elon Musk.
The Republicans don’t know quite what he’s been doing in his recent political role.
The Democrats don’t like what he’s doing in that very same role.
His daughter isn’t his biggest fan, and hasn’t been shy in sharing her thoughts either.
The President of the United States is grateful for his help, thinks he’s ‘sacrificed a lot’ and ‘been treated unfairly’ one week, but has a slinging match with him the next.
You know who else has a big opinion on Elon Musk?
The would-be (or ‘would-have-been’) Tesla purchasers who, in recent years, abandoned the electric vehicle brand in droves (pun intended!) resulting in a loss of more than 10% in sales alone, not to mention the $150b in lost value… that’s US dollars, Tesla suffered in just one day earlier this year, following a war of words on X.
One hundred and fifty. BILLION. Dollars.
Needless to say, Tesla shareholders also likely have an opinion or two about that trajectory and what, or who, they think is the cause of it.
Rather than get into politics, which is not our job, we’ll save that for The Atlantic, which seemed to have a much closer front seat view through their Telegram account, we’re more interested in what this means from a business lens. A triple bottom line lens. A lens that sees the interplay between brand, leadership, environment, community, and consequence.
Let’s start with the obvious: environmentally, Tesla still ticks the box.
Electric vehicles are, at least on paper, a positive alternative to petrol-powered cars. The brand’s mission has always leaned green: ‘to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy’. Their influence in popularising EVs is undeniable.
But the triple bottom line doesn’t stop with the planet. It includes people and profit too.
And it’s in the ‘people’ category (customers, employees, communities, and reputational equity) that things appear to be unravelling.
In the past 12 months alone, Tesla has seen consumer sentiment drop across multiple global markets. Double-digit sales declines have been recorded in six or more European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, once home to some of its most loyal customers. In Spain, Tesla sales dropped by 36% in April 2025, even as the broader EV market surged (Reuters).
It’s not just about competitors or rising interest rates.
It’s about something more human: ethics, trust, and brand dissonance.
Tesla has always been synonymous with Elon Musk. That was fine, arguably beneficial, when the association helped the company appear bold, future-focused, and ambitious.
But when a figurehead becomes divisive or overtly political, the brand can wear the consequences.
A recent Morning Consult report revealed that favourability toward Tesla has dropped significantly among U.S. Democrats, while Republican favourability rose. The problem? EVs are still mostly bought by progressive consumers. As political polarisation grows, so too does the risk of alienating your base.
This is what happens when your leadership becomes louder than your product.
In France, protestors have targeted Tesla showrooms with graffiti and arson. In Sweden, workers boycotted Tesla over alleged poor labour practices. In Germany, the company’s gigafactory was temporarily shut down due to protests and a suspected arson attack.
Social licence, once strong, was visibly fraying.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Tesla’s financial performance has mirrored its reputational slide. At the time of writing:
Stock price: Was down over 45% since December 2024. (Investing.com)
Market cap: Tesla lost more than US $200 billion in value over the past 12 months. (AFR)
Delivery numbers: Q1 2025 deliveries fell 8.5% year-on-year, the biggest drop since the pandemic. (CNBC)
Margins: Operating margin was down to 5.5%, its lowest in over five years. (Yahoo Finance)
It’s worth noting that Tesla slashed prices aggressively to try and buoy demand. In China, it was reported discounts of up to 20% were offered. In the US, headlines said prices fell across all models. But the price cuts didn’t reverse the decline, they simply shrank the profit margins.
Environmental impact alone can’t hold the business upright if trust, relatability, and loyalty are being chipped away.
The modern consumer is more informed and conscientious than ever before.
A global 2024 study confirmed that 71% of consumers view sustainability as equally or more important than it was the year prior. In the same survey, 66% said they actively research the sustainability practices of brands they buy from. And 63% of those surveyed had stopped purchasing from a brand because of its environmental or social stance. (Simon-Kucher, 2024)
This growing interest in social impact and ethical production signals a shift in what consumers prioritise.
Tesla may still offer one of the most advanced electric vehicles on the market, but if the brand behind it feels misaligned with the consumer’s values, that car will stay in the showroom.
Even in decades past, people may have had opinions about the brands they supported. But they didn’t always have the option, or the access, to do anything about it. You could grumble over a cup of tea, shake your head at the telly, maybe write a firmly worded letter to the paper if you were feeling particularly incensed.
But for most people, most of the time, choice was limited.
There weren’t fifty alternatives. There weren’t price-competitive options flooding the market. And most brands didn’t wear their values so openly, which meant you could remain blissfully unaware of who they funded, exploited, or stood behind.
That’s no longer the case.
Today, information is visible. Ethics are public. And, importantly, consumers have options. Real ones. Lots of them.
Take the electric vehicle market. Just a few months ago, the Beijing Auto Show showcased an extraordinary lineup of EVs from Chinese and other Asian manufacturers. The show floor was flooded with choice, dozens of new models, many of them sleek, fast, affordable, and environmentally friendly.
They made the same green promises Tesla did. But they came without the Elon factor.
And while Chinese politics is a whole different conversation, the reality for many consumers is this: they can now choose a vehicle that doesn’t come with global headlines, ideological baggage, or controversy baked into the badge. They can choose a car that aligns with their needs and values, or at the very least, doesn’t offend them.
Choice has given people power.
And this year, many were quietly, and not so quietly, choosing not to choose Tesla.
Just a few months ago, there were whispers that Tesla’s board may have been moving to explore Elon Musk’s removal as CEO.
And while, as in all good stories, the details change one minute to the next, and the potagonist often rises back up to serve another day, the removal of such a central figure to the Telsa brand is an incredibly interesting notion.
If undertaken, this is no small move. Musk has been the face, driver, architect, and amplifier of Tesla since its rise, for better or for worse. Removing him as CEO doesn’t untangle that history, nor does it change the fact that he remains Tesla’s largest shareholder. His influence, financial and symbolic, doesn’t vanish with a title.
But would it help?
Maybe. If the board believes Tesla’s brand and sales are being suffocated under the weight of its founder’s profile, then a change in leadership, or at least public tone, could signal a reset. A soft re-entry into the hearts and wallets of the consumers they’ve lost.
Still, reputational recovery is never as simple as a reshuffle.
Trust, once broken, takes more than a press release to rebuild.
And for many, consumers, employees, even investors, the question will be not just ‘who’s at the helm’, but ‘what do they stand for now?’
If you’re building a business, or scaling one, this moment matters.
It’s a powerful (and expensive) reminder that profit cannot be the only metric.
You can be green on paper and red on the balance sheet. You can make a great product and still lose the trust of the people you made it for.
The triple bottom line isn’t a checkbox.
It’s a balancing act, and for companies that want to endure the scrutiny, volatility, and complexity of modern business, it’s the only strategy that makes any real sense.
Ready to future-proof your business with a strategy actually built for today (and tomorrow)? Reach out to our team for a chat.
Our client logged into his ex-employee’s inbox to recover a file. What he found exposed a bullying manager, an unowned domain, and a marketing stack he no longer controlled.
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