Elon Musk’s crusade against California is causing Tesla sales in the Golden State to plummet

Industry data on Thursday revealed demand for new Teslas in the Golden State plummeted 24% to 52,211 vehicles in Q2, based on registrations recorded post-sale when a vehicle’s title is processed. 

The latest figures mark Tesla’s third consecutive three-month period of declines compared to the previous year, suggesting that the volume of its existing range may have peaked in 2023 when it hit 230,500 vehicles.

“Tesla’s allure seems to be wearing off,” said the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA), which published the figures it sources from Experian Automotive. 

Meanwhile, registrations of its Rivian soared 69% this quarter to 3,742 vehicles, making it the fastest-growing major brand in California.

The Rivian R1S crossover has climbed one spot to become the third best-selling non-Tesla EV behind only the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ford Mustang Mach-E.  

One well-known Tesla owner from Malibu who frequently uploads videos of Full-Self Driving beta tests to social media under her avatar @MissJilliane, posted on Tuesday after Musk publicly endorsed Trump that she, too, was thinking of ditching her Tesla for a Rivian. 

Good Morning!! 🌞 pic.twitter.com/ozYY715SDA

— Miss Jilianne (@MissJilianne) July 16, 2024

EVs are hot in California

California is crucial for Tesla’s business since the EV share of the state’s new car market at 21.4% is nearly three times the U.S. average of 7.5% in 2023.

Of the nearly 381,000 electric vehicles sold in the state that year across all car brands, six out of ten were Tesla cars. 

Even when conventional combustion vehicles are included in the mix, the Model 3 was California’s best-selling passenger car in 2023, surpassing the Toyota Camry, while the Model Y proved the state’s most popular vehicle of any kind.

The brand even briefly eclipsed Toyota as the number one choice for buyers in the state when Tesla sales nearly hit 69,000 cars in the second quarter of last year.

To be clear, Tesla still dominates the state’s EV market with a 53% market share in the first half of 2024.

That means all other competitors combined still sell fewer EVs than Musk.

Rivian had a share of just 3.6%, by comparison. 

Yet that also means California is Tesla’s market to lose, and Musk does not appear to be doing his company any favors by constantly agitating against left-leaning issues popular among many of his mainly progressive customers. 

After formally endorsing Trump on Sunday, the entrepreneur then followed up with news on Tuesday he was moving the headquarters of both SpaceX and X Corp to Texas.

He cited a controversial new state law called AB1955 that prohibits teachers from discussing children’s sexual identity with their parents—for Musk “the final straw”. 

This is the final straw.

Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas. https://t.co/cpWUDgBWFe

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024

He had already voiced his displeasure with Sacramento when he moved the headquarters of Tesla three years ago during the pandemic.

The demanding CEO had repeatedly clashed with county health officials over the operation of his Fremont vehicle factory, the largest in North America, which produced some 560,00 cars last year. 

Musk has won over many new conservative converts to his social media business, which rebranded last year to eliminate any association it still had with legacy Twitter.

But this doesn’t help him when it comes to Tesla, since the new cohort he recruited to boost advertising-relevant traffic on his X platform typically takes a very dim view of the environmentally friendly EVs predominantly preferred by voters on the left.

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