Tesla reputation slumps in recent survey, scoring lower than GM, Volkswagen, Toyota, losing 50 spots in ranking ↺
Despite occupying around 60% of the new electric vehicle registrations of the first quarter of 2023, Tesla's reputation has taken substantial tumble since 2021, according to the Axios Harris Poll 100, which ranks America's top 100 most visible brands using a number of criteria. While Tesla previous ranked 12th overall, it has slipped to 62nd in 2023. A total of nine carmakers made it into survey, although Toyota Motor Corporation was the only one to make it into the top ten this year. Honda slipped four spots to number 13, dropping out of the top ten.
Interestingly, Tesla's public perception problem seems to have very little to do with its actual vehicles, with the American EV company scoring a decent 81 points in the Products & Services criterion. Instead, where Tesla has faltered is in the Character, Trust, and Citizenship criteria, indicating it has a bit of a PR problem.
Another interesting part of how the 16,310 survey respondents ranked Tesla is that the scores for different criteria vary wildly. Whereas Toyota's scores are all within eight points of each other, Tesla's lowest score is 68.1, for Citizenship, and its highest score is 81, for Products & Services — a difference of 11.9. Although, Culture and Ethics weren't far behind Tesla's worst scores, coming in at 70.5 and 71.3, respectively.
While it's unclear what has caused Tesla's reputation to slip in these specific areas, speculation might point to controversial comments and business moves by the company's CEO, Elon Musk. Reports of unreliable self-driving software, radar funny-business at service centres, and the contents of a recent Tesla data breach are all also bound to eat away at the company's public perception.
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