It’s been a rough ride lately for electric vehicle maker Tesla, co-founded and led by CEO Elon Musk, and sales numbers in the San Diego area have taken a nosedive so far this year.
A monthly report by the New Car Dealers Association of San Diego County showed that as of the end of February, registrations for new Teslas in the county dropped 35% compared to the end of February in 2024. The electric vehicle company’s market share shrunk from 14.6% to 9.4% during the same time frame.
The drops came even though overall car and light truck sales across the county were up 1.3% compared to the first two months of last year, according to data compiled by Experian Automotive.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from the Union-Tribune.
The numbers come as Musk’s controversial actions as head of the Trump administration’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency and his forays into all things political have sparked protests, boycotts, vandalism and even arson investigations at Tesla locations across the U.S. and even in Europe.
Musk and his team at DOGE have a stated goal of cutting federal government bloat and reducing what the advisory body sees as excess personnel and wasteful spending. But critics say DOGE’s actions have been sloppy and led to mass firings and cancellations of valuable government contracts that have prompted a rash of lawsuits.
“Elon Musk is in a unique position where he’s so intrinsically tied to Tesla,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of auto sector insights at Edmunds.com. “That’s his baby. It’s like he and Tesla are almost one in most people’s minds.”
And right now, a sizable chunk of the population is turned off by Musk, and they’re taking it out on his car company.
“We’re going to fight back against what’s going on in Washington,” said Gordon Alter, who took part in a demonstration in front of the Tesla building in Encinitas on March 15. “We’re not going to sit by, we’re not going to sit on our hands,” he told 10News San Diego. “We’re going to get out, protest here, protest at government agency offices where people are being cut for no good reason.”
Just a couple of days later, multiple Tesla vehicles at the showroom were spray-painted with swastikas. Some of the building’s windows had been smashed and profanities scrawled on the walls.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident, and Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone with information that leads to an arrest in the case.
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Much more serious incidents have occurred in other parts of the country, including a fire that destroyed five vehicles at a Tesla showroom in Las Vegas, a blaze in Seattle in March that damaged four Cybertrucks and a fire in Kansas City that charred two Cybertrucks.
The FBI has announced it’s investigating the incidents, as well as other acts of vandalism against the carmaker. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement saying the “swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism” and said the Department of Justice will “impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks.”
In Berlin, Germany, four Teslas were set on fire on March 14. A month earlier, Germany held national elections, and Musk appeared via video link in support of the ultra-conservative Alternative for Germany party.
Social media overflows with videos of people walking by the sides of Tesla vehicles and “keying” them — deliberately gouging them with a sharp object.
All the drama has taken a toll on Tesla’s stock.
The company’s price per share hit a high of $479.86 on Dec. 17 — a little more than a month after Donald Trump was elected to return to the White House, with Musk taking a prominent role in Trump’s campaign. But the stock price dropped more than 50% by mid-March.
Tesla stocked closed Friday at $248.71, up $12.45, or 5.27%, on the Nasdaq exchange.
“We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly,” the JPMorgan group said in a note to clients earlier this month.
But some auto analysts say Tesla’s troubles predate Musk taking on a higher political profile.
Adoption rates for EVs have flattened for many automakers, not just Tesla. The number of all-electric vehicles sold in California in 2024 increased by only 2,000 from the year before, and registrations statewide have dropped for two straight quarters.
In addition, the EV sector is maturing as other carmakers roll out their own makes and models.
“We’ve got a lot more competition available than there was for Tesla even a year ago, and certainly three years ago,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iseecars.com. “So there’s a lot more options in the premium electric vehicle market … Each of those models is fighting for the same piece of the pie, which is not growing.”
Polestar, an up-and-coming potential rival to Tesla in the EV sector, is trying to take a bite out of its primary competitor’s share of the market.
Polestar has offered a $5,000 “Conquest Program” bonus aimed specifically at drivers leasing a Tesla to jump ship and lease a new Polestar 3 crossover. Added to another $15,000 incentive the company offers, the deal can reduce the price of a Polestar 3 by $20,000 for buyers who qualify.
Asked to elaborate on the promotion, Polestar did not respond to two emails from the Union-Tribune.
But Brauer said, “I would absolutely expect competing brands to try to exploit what looks like an opportunity to absorb Tesla customers, for sure.”
During March, Edmunds.com says its data have recorded the highest levels ever of Tesla customers trading in their cars at dealerships (which does not include Tesla trade-ins toward purchasing new Teslas or purchases of vehicles from other direct-to-consumer brands.)
“It’s not like we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of Teslas suddenly,” Caldwell said, “but we definitely have seen an increase.”
Wedbush Securities has long been bullish on Tesla stock, but the controversies and vandalism have the wealth management company spooked.
“The point we have stressed over the last week is that Musk needs to lead Tesla through this very turbulent period and show employees and investors the other side of this dark brand crisis tornado,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a company report Friday. “We are not asking Musk to give up his DOGE initiative … instead we and many top investors are asking for balance as Tesla CEO and DOGE in this key period for Tesla.”
Wedbush nonetheless has maintained its $550 per share target for Tesla stock, largely due to Tesla’s investments in robotics, autonomous vehicle technology and artificial intelligence.
Musk’s most vocal opponents have called for a “Tesla Takedown” on March 29 at 277 Tesla locations in the U.S. and more than 500 around the world. “Let’s send these techno-fascists, broligarchs and old fashioned Nazis a message loud and clear,” one group said on Bluesky.
“Tesla is a peaceful company,” Musk told Sean Hannity on Fox News this week. “I’ve never done anything awful. I think we just have a deranged … there is some kind of mental illness thing going on here.”
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel snapped back, saying, “Well, let me see if I can explain it for you. When you pull out a chainsaw to celebrate firing thousands of people, they get mad.”
Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat from the Bay Area whose district includes the Tesla factory in Fremont, spoke out against the vandalism.
“This is not the best form of protest,” Khanna said on CNN. “I have huge, huge problems with what Elon Musk is doing. Have the protests and the conversation and criticism of Musk. Don’t take it out on a company where you have workers, where you have engineers, where you have scientists which are creating wealth for the country, which is helping the climate.”
Adding to Tesla’s woes, the company this week issued a recall on nearly all of its Cybertrucks because an exterior trim was falling off. In a report to the National Highway Safety Administration, Tesla said only about 1% of the models were defective but it would recall all of the vehicles as a precaution.
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