Tesla loses corporate sales in Germany over what a firm sees as CEO Elon Musk going against Tesla’s mission to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy.
Tesla was originally founded with the mission of “accelerating the advent of electric transport,” which later evolved to “the advent of sustainable energy.”
However, many people have raised questions about CEO Elon Musk’s commitment to Tesla’s mission in recent years.
He sold tens of billions worth of Tesla stocks to buy Twitter, fired Tesla’s charging team who built the best EV charging network in the world, killed cheaper EV programs, “fully endorsed” a candidate for US elections who has been actively working against Tesla’s mission, and called for the end of EV incentives, which Tesla benefited from greatly but are now more needed for other EV startups.
Many former Tesla fans have stated that they don’t plan to support the company any longer due to Musk’s lack of support for the mission. Some analysts are trying to assess whether this is starting to have an impact on Tesla’s sales.
Now, a company in Germany has confirmed that it does as it announced that will stop buying Tesla vehicles for its fleet directly due to Elon Musk.
Rossmann, one of the largest pharmacy chains in Europe, announced in a press release today:
ROSSMANN will not purchase any more Tesla vehicles for its fleet with immediate effect. This decision is based on the incompatibility between the statements of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the values that Tesla represents with its products.
Raoul Roßmann, spokesman for the company, commented:
Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax – this attitude is in stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars.
Rossmann has purchased many Tesla vehicles as part of its fleet electrification initiatives. It confirmed that it will keep these vehicles for “sustainability and resource conservation” reasons, but it will not purchase any more Tesla vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
It’s pretty wild that a large company like that would issue a press release specifically to call out the CEO of one of its suppliers.
But it does show that Elon’s latest action is having a direct impact on its sales.
That’s why CEOs of major consumer companies tend not to get involved too much in politics, but Elon is way past that now. He thinks he is on a holy mission to stop the woke left, or he is stoking up the culture wars because he happens to use a media platform that benefits from the division, vitriol, and nonsense that comes with culture wars.
Either way, I think Rossmann is right. He doesn’t seem to be really aligned with Tesla’s mission anymore.