America is polarized, with each side on an island seeing different news and coming to different conclusions about the company’s direction.
Don’t you mean the country?
No. The company. Tesla.
A new poll from YouGov finds that Tesla owners and non-owners have radically different opinions about the company. And, while the company may win more headlines than any rival, the news doesn’t seem to change how many Americans would buy one.
YouGov’s BrandIndex surveys track Americans’ feelings about the “buzz” around popular brands in many markets. Researchers ask respondents whether they’ve heard more positive or negative things about a brand over the last two weeks. The researchers instruct the respondents to consider media sources and commentary from friends and family.
On Tesla, researchers found an unusually stark divide.
“Tesla’s Buzz scores last year remained consistently negative, averaging a score of -7.1. This indicates that conversations around the EV company leaned more toward the negative throughout 2023,” they say.
However, among Tesla owners, the opposite is true. “Tesla averaged a net Buzz score of 61.8 among current customers last year, meaning Tesla owners were more likely to say they were hearing more positive things around the brand,” YouGov says.
Related: Tesla Has The Most Loyal Owners, Study Finds
Headlines Don’t Seem to Affect Shopping Plans
The buzz doesn’t seem to affect car shopping plans much. In the first quarter of 2023, 70.3% of current Tesla owners said they would consider a Tesla as their next car purchase. Among non-owners, 7.2% had the same response.
In the first quarter of this year, 67.4% of Tesla owners said they would consider another Tesla, while 7.9% of non-Tesla owners said they would.
In the time between, Tesla announced two high-profile recalls involving nearly every vehicle the automaker had ever sold. One covered its “Full-Self Driving” driver assistance software. One covered the less-advanced Autopilot system.
“So far, news of brand recalls has not played a significant role in shaping consumer consideration for the brand, particularly among Tesla’s customer base,” the researchers say.
