Scott Galloway, who is a professor, entrepreneur and podcast host, recently said that Elon Musk “cosied up to the wrong people for Tesla,” which led to “one of the greatest brand destructions” ever. He also said that ever since Musk increased his political spending and created DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to implement job and spending cuts, Tesla sales have gone down.
“He’s alienated the wrong people,” Galloway said on his podcast Pivot. “Three-quarters of Republicans would never consider buying an EV. So he’s cosied up to the people who aren’t interested in EVs,” he added.
Tesla’s reputation dropped big time
He also quoted Axios Harris Poll, which showed Tesla had fallen from the eighth-most reputable brand in 2021 to the 95th.
Tesla Motors has seen a significant dip across several brand reputation categories. It ranks 100 in Character with a score of 56.1, and 89 in Trajectory, scoring 66.9. Trust remains low at 98 with a score of 56.7, while Culture and Ethics also show weak performance, ranking 96 and 98 with scores of 58.7 and 56.3, respectively. In Citizenship, Tesla stands at 99 with a score of 55.1, suggesting challenges in public perception of its social responsibility. Meanwhile, Vision and Growth are both ranked at 96, scoring 66.7 and 63.1, respectively, according to the 2025 Axios Harris Poll 100 Reputation Rankings.
Galloway further said that Tesla sales have almost dropped by 12%, and the market share by 8% in the biggest EV markets in America, which is California.
Tesla’s sales were down 59% in France, 81% in Sweden, 74% in the Netherlands, 66% in Denmark, 50% in Switzerland and 33% in Portugal, Galloway said, adding that Tesla’s sales are declining faster than any automobile company in the world.
DOGE is not saving US money
“Let’s just be clear about DOGE. It’s not saving the US money. It’s costing money because the recommendations they made were to cut the IRS by 50 per cent, which would lead to a $400 billion increase in uncollected taxes,” he slammed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency).
He added that DOGE will lead to losses of trillions of dollars as the department, headed by Musk, has “emasculated the US government’s ability to collect taxes”.
Galloway said that the US may enter a “doom loop” as the share of wealth of the “top 1 per cent has tripled since 1980”, and the political spending has increased 17 times.
Musk, ever since Trump returned to the White House, has expressed his opinions on European political affairs, including Germany’s federal election and the UK’s row over grooming gangs, particularly on X, the social media platform he owns. Twitter, which was renamed X after Musk’s takeover in 2022, ranks at 98th position on the Axios Harris Poll 100.
After the world’s richest person sort of entered politics, he started losing customers there as well, and for the first time, BYD outsold Tesla in Europe, a lucrative EV market. BYD is a Chinese competitor of Tesla, according to a report by Jato Dynamics, which supplies automotive industry intelligence.
‘One of the greatest brand destructions’
“This has arguably been one of the greatest brand destructions, and Tesla was a great brand,” Galloway said to his co-host, veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher. “He’s alienated his core demographic.”
Tesla stocks have been falling for months now, and they fell over 4% early this month after a news report said that the company has been looking for a CEO to replace Elon Musk. Though Musk rubbished the report, he publicly acknowledged that he will “allocate more time to Tesla,” one of the demands that the investors put forth during a board of directors meeting.
He also said that his work getting the government’s “financial house in order is mostly done”, and hence his “time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly”.
It is to be noted that Tesla shares saw a jump after Trump won the November election and returned to the White House. Tesla’s total market value hit a record high of $1.5 trillion in December. However, since that peak, Tesla’s value has dropped to about $900 billion.