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Study links sales drop to Musk's political actions and

donations

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Democratic buyers shift to competitors' electric vehicles

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Musk's actions impact California's zero-emissions vehicle

goals

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Tesla CEO Elon Musk's

polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, later

rebranded X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker's U.S.

sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with

the billionaire's persona.

The findings quantify for the first time how the political

actions of the world's wealthiest person - including his role in

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration - may have cost

Tesla billions in lost vehicle sales while benefiting rival

electric carmakers.

Tesla's U.S. sales would have been between 67% and 83%

higher, or about 1 million to 1.26 million additional vehicles,

from October 2022 to April 2025, had it not been for what

researchers call the "Musk partisan effect", according to a

working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by

Yale University economists.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment

on the report.

As Democratic-leaning buyers shifted away from Tesla, that

effect also boosted the sales of competitors' electric and

hybrid vehicles by roughly 17% to 22%, the study found.

The Yale University researchers linked the drop to Musk's

increasingly partisan behavior, including his roughly $300

million in donations to Republican candidates as well as

leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

under Trump.

Musk's political stance has alienated environmentally minded

Democratic buyers - historically Tesla's strongest base -

according to surveys cited in the report.

Sentiment toward Tesla improved somewhat as Musk pivoted the

company towards robotaxis, self-driving technology and robots in

human form.

Tesla board Chair Robyn Denholm said in an interview with

CNBC on Monday that the outside perception of Musk spending time

in the U.S. government had diminished.

The NBER paper said Musk's actions also hampered

California's progress toward its zero-emissions vehicle goals,

concluding that the state would likely have met its 2026 targets

"had it not been for the Musk partisan effect".

Registrations of Tesla cars in the state fell 9.4% in the

third quarter, with its market share falling to 46.2% in the

three-month period.