Not only did Tesla have a significant first-mover (or, maybe, fast-follower) advantage with electric cars, the company also collected a fiercely loyal set of buyers. This presented a real challenge for luxury brands as Tesla was mostly taking buyers from them and not giving them back. This was going to inevitably change as more electric cars entered the market, but the collapse of Tesla’s loyalty in the United States is the clearest sign yet of the damage Elon Musk has done to his brand.
The Morning Dump today will be all about second chances. One company that’s taken advantage of Tesla’s fall from grace has been General Motors. Don’t get it twisted, while GM will keep making electric cars, it’s shifting at least one plant in the United States from the production of EVs to gas-powered trucks. Ford is finally going to be building more cars in Europe again that aren’t just, you know, weird Volkswagens.
Renault has been the exception to the rule for mainstream European automakers, but the good times only last for so long.
Tesla Is Really Jack Pardee-ing It
View this post on Instagram
Do you want to relive some trauma with me? I don’t remember my dad crying a lot, though I’ll never forget the time on January 3rd, 1993, when the Houston Oilers blew a 35-3 lead in the third quarter of the AFC Championship to miss their spot in the Super Bowl to play the vile (to us) Dallas Cowboys. Some call this game “The Comeback,” though I’ll always think of it as “The Choke.”
I remembered this while looking at the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Brand Loyalty report, which looks at automotive brand loyalty. For years, no one has been even close to Tesla. The pandemic-related disruptions impacted most automakers as traditionally loyal buyers were happy to be able to take anything that was available.
Prior to the pandemic, slightly more than half of buyers (54.3%) were likely to trade their car for another from the same brand. That number dipped below 50% during the pandemic and has, finally, climbed back to close to normal through the first half of the year (53.3%).
There are two standouts in this report. The first is Toyota, which is now the most loyal brand through the first half of 2025, with 65.9% of buyers coming back to the brand. This is helped greatly by the RAV-4, with a brand loyalty of 69.4%. Once you go RAV-4 you never go back, I guess.
Tesla, though, has gone quickly in the other direction:
Tesla, for example, was in the number one position in 2024 with 60.9% brand loyalty. In the first half of 2025, Tesla has fallen to 7th with a rate of 54.2%. Tesla owners disposing of and replacing their Tesla vehicle with another electric vehicle have historically stayed loyal to Tesla 88% of the time. Those same owners are now only 75% loyal, increasingly choosing competitive electric vehicles from other brands.
This is helpful data. There was always some inevitability to Tesla losing market share as other companies caught up, and that has somewhat clouded the discussion over how much Elon Musk’s foray into politics was hurting the brand in the United States (it’s obviously happening in Europe).
The rapid speed with which Tesla has descended from God-tier loyalty to basically being like any other car company has no other real explanation at this point. A slow descent was what everyone had expected, and this is anything but slow. And, as the numbers show, it’s not just people deciding to buy a non-EV; the company is also losing traction with people who decide to buy another EV.
I’m anxious to see the earnings report from Tesla later this month.
And what about EVs in general? From the same report:
U.S. consumers are transitioning more slowly to electric vehicles than expected. At the same time, automakers are suffering from future unpredictability, plagued by policy changes at the federal level, emissions standards, the rollback of incentives, and governmental regulations. Consumers who remain brand loyal may elect to stay with an internal combustion engine over an EV model made by the same brand.
That’s a convenient transition to…
GM’s Orion Plant Is Going To Make ICE Trucks Instead Of EV Trucks
General Motors is adjusting its electrification plans, and, no surprise, this means that the Orion Assembly in Michigan will be shifting towards more future gas-powered truck production instead of, as initially planned, electric truck production. This is likely because the strong market for electric pickups hasn’t particularly materialized, plus the loss of tax credits for cars and a general change in environmental policy in the United States.
What will happen, it seems, is that GM will make the Escalade, Silverado, and Sierra at Orion. This will allow the company to produce more Suburbans/Tahoes/Yukons/Yukons XL at the company’s Arlington Assembly.
So what of all the money the company took to make electric trucks there? According to the Detroit Free Press, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) still thinks the company is generally following the rules and shouldn’t have to give the $480 million in state funds back:
So far, no one has publicly called for GM to return any of the grant money, though the agreement contains provisions that if the company was to violate the terms, the state has the right to claw back the funds, according to GM.
“GM remains in compliance with their incentive agreement and we’re grateful for their continued commitment to creating jobs and investing here in Michigan, whether it be at the Lake Orion facility or at Factory Zero” in Hamtramck and Detroit, Courtney Overbey Martinez, vice president of communications for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said in a statement.
Well, that’s convenient. Orion does still assemble battery packs for EVs that are built at the company’s Factory Zero facility.
Ford Is Going To Give European Dealers Some Real Cars Again
I got to drive the Ford Puma ST when I was in England, and I loved that little hatchback. I would definitely rock one of those over here, though I doubt I’ll ever get the chance. It’s one of the few Ford cars produced in Europe for Europe, as the company has largely pared down the European-specific offerings.
There’s the Volkswagen-based Ford Capri, but the less we talk about that, the better.
Ford hasn’t given up on Europe yet and, per Automotive News, will start investing again in some real products for the market:
Ford CEO Jim Farley plans to develop new passenger cars in Europe again, dealers were told in a video conference by Christoph Herr, head of the brand in German-speaking countries.
In recent years, U.S. automaker has downsized its passenger car offerings in Europe to focus on its more profitable light commercial vehicles business.
The popular Fiesta small car was dropped, along with the Galaxy and S-Max minivans. The Focus compact car is due to go out of production in the autumn.
You know what deserves a comeback? The freakin’ Escort and the freakin’ Sierra. Make it happen!
Talk About A Bad First Day
When Luca de Meo left Renault as its CEO, he went out on a real high note as the company reported healthy margins and profitability at a time when everyone else in Europe seemed lost.
Maybe his sudden timing isn’t so curious now as Renault gets a new interim CEO in Duncan Minto. Here’s how his first day went, as reported by Automotive News again:
Renault Group’s new interim CEO, finance chief Duncan Minto, found himself explaining a profit warning to analysts on his very first day on the job on July 15.
Investors reacted strongly, with Renault’s share price falling 16 percent on early trading July 16.
It was the group’s first profit warning since former CEO Luca de Meo took over a money-losing automaker in July 2020, and it points to immediate challenges facing Minto and Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, who will co-direct Renault while it searches for a permanent top executive.
The cut was only from a margin of 7.0% to a margin of 6.5%, so it’s not quite that bad. Still, losing 16% of your value in one day is not great.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I forgot that this was the Song of the Summer in 2013, or at least one of them. “Rude” by Magic! is definitely an earworm, but it’s also not anything I’d ever actively choose to listen to. The reason why it’s here is because I saw this Instagram reel in which a comedian notes that the song is actually about a Canadian fusion reggae singer being, frankly, politely denied a blessing from an uptight dad. I am Team Dad on this one.
The Big Question
Are you loyal to a brand? Which one?
Photo: Tesla, NBC Sports
I’m not loyal to a brand but once I got fed up with a brand I never go back.
not brand loyal. I buy what fits my needs and price.
Subaru (4), Acura (2), Volvo (2), Mazda (1), VW (1)
On Rude – I’m firmly against Dad on this one. I didn’t ask my future FIL for permission for multiple reasons:
1 – It was not his decision to make, it was hers.
2 – I knew the answer would be “no”.
3 – I didn’t want to be alone with him long enough to ask.
I used to be a GM guy when I was a kid, most of my family drove GM and my gearhead uncle was a HUGE Chevy/GM guy.
Now though, IDGAF. I’ve owned at least one vehicle from each of the Detroit 3, plus a Toyota and a Volvo. They all had their pros and cons. At this point I’d prob consider a Chinese vehicle if it ticked all the right boxes and we could get them here.
My first vehicle ever was a squarebody Chevy 4×4 pickup, so I do have a soft spot for old Chevy trucks. Up until the current gen I might have even still said they made the best trucks. It pains young me to say that Ford prob makes the best truck right now.
The Toyota is the most reliable, though it’s kind of an appliance.
I think the Volvo was the “nicest”, I really loved driving that car.
The two I really miss and wish I still had were the 73 K10 and the 88 GTA Trans Am.
Nope, I’m loyal to models with proven track records for reliability. There is no such thing as an entirely reliable brand. That being said, I have a major soft spot for GM stuff. 2.5 GM cars (one is really a suzuki, so it only gets half points) 2 Fords, and one AMC.
My brand loyalty goes something like this. First the product must work well and reliably. Second, if it didn’t work well or reliably, has the manufacturer and it’s support network been there to make it right.
Basically, if the brand pissed me off, they are dead to me.
I’ve owned GMs (2), Nissan (1), Acura (1), Honda (3), Subaru (2) and lately an old Toyota.
I’d still by any of them except maybe GM, Nissan or Acura. Nissan because it was a lackluster product all the way around. Acura because the local dealer, the only one for almost 100 miles around, had an across the board incompetent service department. In all fairness to GM, I owned 80s cars and GM has come a long way from those painful offerings. Might eventually come back around to them, but there are so many other great options out there, it might not happen.
Was Ford loyal after Ford Focus ZX3, Ford Ranger, Ford Focus SVT, and now Ford Fiesta ST.
I’d like to go electric so unless the skunkworks projects blows my socks off I am looking at the Slate truck (literally this weekend too).
I wouldn’t say “loyal” per se…. as if they stopped making cars I like, I’d move to something else… but I’ve always had good luck with Honda/Acura. Also Toyota. They both just seem to produce products that work for me, while other cars don’t meet my needs as well. (One of those needs being good reliability and longevity, obviously, but that’s definitely not the only factor.)
As far as Tesla goes…. the exodus from ownership of their cars has been impressive. People who a couple years ago were adamantly pro-Tesla are now dumping them and switching to other brands, because they don’t want to be seen driving one. They don’t want the association and hate. People assume the worst about Tesla owners these days.
Tesla’s fanbase changed. Some turned against their fellow fanbase that actually did own a Tesla. They were biting their own in an attempt to fight the ‘nahh seas’ that they were sure were in their midst. Sad state of affairs all the way around.
Thought about getting a Tesla when Hertz was unloading them because some were a steal. In the end, I wanted to stay away from the drama. Plus I didn’t want to run the risk of Hertz having me arrested for not returning a rental that I bought from them.
Generally not, but I:d tilt towards Honda of the brought back the Fit.
Our family was never wealthy enough to have the luxury of brand preference when I was growing up.
As a result, I’m brand agnostic and just buy what I like and/or can afford.
Toyotas and Hondas. Toyotas are better but frequently I don’t fit in them, they’re made for short people. Hondas have a lot more headroom in general. I had a Chevy Astro for about 3 years and oof… never had so many repair bills for a 3-6 year old vehicle.
I’ve noticed this too about Honda vs Toyota…. I always have more than enough room in a Honda. Not always Toyota.
Same – had a 2000 Corolla which never fit me quite right and we replaced it with a 2nd gen Prius. With the Prius I ended up putting spacers on the front set of seat bolts to get a little more thigh support and legroom which helped. That was the last of my Toyotas and unless I end up with an old 4Runner or something in the future I really don’t see myself going back.
I’m loyal to a car that meets my needs.
I grew up in a Ford house but with Ford discontinuing the american production of cars outside of Mustang. It holds no appeal the fiesta was a great car and the newer focus was reasonable. But to cut it out completely killed my loyalty/
Taking the easy and quick reasoning you’d say its due to Musk’s political exercises, but that would only be a part of the reason.
Other manufacturers have gained a lot of ground. GM, Ford, Hyundai/KIA and Volvo/Polestar and even Nissan now come to mind when thinking of viable EVs for general use. Opening up of Tesla SuperCharger network has or will help those brands take market share. Honda and Toyota, and by extension Subaru, may join that list in the near future.
Tesla has slooowwwly evolved their offerings. I’m sure Tesla is improving their products, but unless you are into EVs, I’m thinking you never hear about them. Tesla doesn’t seem to advertise at the same level as other manufacturers.
Tesla’s only new product in years turned out to be a stainless steel coated turd (maybe they can fix it over time). Not only did the trucks fail to perform as expected or have high reliability, they were a polarizing design that also acquired a certain stigma. Not saying GM’s Hummer offerings were weightily (pun intended) better, but at least they didn’t invoke the same level of emotions when you saw one being towed off to the dealer’s service department.
I have no brand loyalty. Only brands I avoid but may earn a 2nd chance. As far as cars go I avoid the American brands and, while I don’t necessarily avoid Toyota, they only have one car that I like but it’s actually a Subaru.
The only brand I’d have considered being loyal to was the Yellowstone Ranch but that’s only because I really liked Teeter, but that’s over now that Yellowstone is gone and Teeter has moved on to the devil ranch. I don’t care how good a woman looks splashing around naked in a river, there’s no way I’m following her into Texas. And before anyone reminds me that Yellowstone isn’t real, I’d ask what is reality worth these days?
I am 3/4 on Toyota daily drivers. 1997 Camry, 2001 Camry, and 2023 Corolla Hybrid. The dimensions on the new Corollas are almost identical to the old Camrys. I guess I’d call that loyalty, with one Subaru as the outlier.
that Subaru probably costs more in upkeep than the other 3 combined LOL
“Loyalty” seems like a weird way to frame it that buys too much into branding. Yes, I know that’s business jargon, but if the car is just an appliance, then it’s just “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Loyalty implies some kind of fidelity or deference, such as to a king, which I do no not offer to ANY corporation…with the possible exception of The Autopian.
poor build quality and Elon’s antics will do the trick, but his biggest blunder was the cybertruck trash can. He should’ve just made a model 3 with a pickup bed. That shit would’ve printed money.
LOL even Subaru has better loyalty, and they went from shitty head gaskets to CVT valve body and suspension problems! If you ever want to experience *inner* CV joint failure, check out Subaru 😛
<grumpy cat GOOD>
Completely ignoring Elon, Tesla has an extremely Silicon Valley mindset. They thought they could pull an Apple and just keep releasing the same exact product ad nauseam with only minor changes and people would keep lining up to buy. That may have actually worked when they were the only game in town, EV-wise, but the major OEMs are steeped in the 4-5 year model cycle and are accustomed to actually doing MCRs to keep vehicles fresh.
Their current lineup is so stagnant it’s funny. The Model S is still being sold (!), the Model 3 and Y are basically the same exact vehicle as when they went on sale, the Cybertruck is a non-starter, and all of their cars are just dull-looking at the end of the day. Their biggest advantages are the direct-sales model and the Supercharger network, and the latter is now accessible by almost any new EV.
What’s interesting is GM is running the same play book now to upend Tesla they ran to unseat Ford from dominance in the early 1900s which is to offer customers choices where the competition had more narrow offerings.
It’s never a good sign when GM has its shit together more than you as an automaker.
Don’t worry, it’ll come back around. They released a whole bunch of refreshed and new models across their brands and then spent the better part of last year laying off engineers. So in a couple years they’ll be back to normal.
I’m going with Aldi.
Living in Houstoned during that time I always remember the story of the redneck in Pasadena (tx) who shot his TV set after the winning field goal.
I have a slightly different, personal, take on Tesla losing brand loyalty.
Many people, including myself have switched to EVs and don’t want to go back to ICE. For a while, Tesla was really the only game in town for EVs that could road trip. That was because of the Supercharger network, vehicle range and charging speed. It basically tied people to the Tesla brand if they wanted to stay EV.
Up until 1-2 years ago, it was really hard to compete with that. Now, most major manufacturers compete on range and charging speeds. They are also getting access to the Supercharger network. Competing charging networks are getting their acts together too. That opens up choice to consumers which will take away from brand loyalty.
If I needed to replace one of our Tesla’s today, I would consider other vehicles that come with the NACS charging port. The ability to road trip is why we bought Tesla’s two years ago. The ID.4 was crippled by the state of CCS charging in the areas we would travel to and the Chevy Bolt charged too slow to road trip. My hazy memory can’t seem to come up with any other EVs that were readily available in the spring of 2023. There were others on the market, but the wait lists were long.
Then there is the whole Musk problem. That’s absolutely a contributor to the loss of brand loyalty, but not the sole reason.
Tesla seemed to operate under the assumption that the major OEMs would never be competitive with them – and for a long time they were not remotely competitive. But we’re now at a point where you can buy at least one genuinely good EV from almost every major automaker and it seems Tesla hasn’t quite realized that yet.
I think Leon’s antics are 95% of the loss of brand loyalty. He’s pissed of both political parties in the US and all of Europe. If he would have stayed out of politics, they’d still be increasing sales of the 3 and Y. He needs to accept help from non-yes-men Public Relations.
The Cybertruck would have been successful if it sold for the promised price and range. They have a horrible track record of over-promising and it’s so obvious to most that their announcements can’t be trusted. They need real corporate leadership to right the ship and muzzle the problem.
I own three Model Ys and will by a Juniper Model Y Performance if it can be delivered before 10/1. They are still the best EVs for the price. The only other EVs I’d consider are from BMW and Porsche and they are twice the price.
His nonsense isn’t helping anything, but Tesla’s lineup is simply stagnant. They may offer decent specs, but cars are not always logical purchases, and people want options.
IMO, the Y is the only one worth buying. It gets better all the time.
Honestly you don’t need to wait for NACS. The OEM adaptors work just fine and are compact enough to shove in the glove box. I like retaining the CCS port so I have even more charger options, I recently used a Rivian charger (as a non owner) and it was the best charging experience I’ve had so far… Pull up, tap credit card, plug in. No freaking apps, no need for phone even, just worked and it was one of the fastest charging rates I’ve gotten so far…the price was a bit higher than some of the other networks, but was worth it for my use case where I needed to drive about 600 miles in 8-9 hours.
We already have an adaptor to charge our Tesla’s at CCS chargers. Adaptor life sucks and adds a failure point. Most major charge networks are adding dual NACS and CCS plugs to new installs as well as planning to add NACS to existing stations.
I like Tesla vehicles themselves. But given everything that transpired, I can’t see myself buying another one.
Growing up one side of my family had only GM cars. The other side were Toyota people. I’ve driven different brands but somehow keep finding myself purchasing North American assembled vehicles.
If my name and my comments don’t give away what brand has my “loyalty”, I don’t know what will.
Granted, even that isn’t worth much because I’ll always think about getting pretty much anything from any brand, so they don’t even have me completely hooked. In order to do that, they actually need to build more than 9 things, and with more than just a damn V8.
If I find myself having to replace something permanent, it’s either because my life situation is changing, in which case I need something different and will do the research to find out which brand is better at making a product that suits my new needs, or because it’s irreparable broken, in which case I REALLY need to reconsider whom I buy the replacement for.
I guess I buy the same brands of food (Heinz ketchup, for example), but that’s more to do with familiarity/consistency than “loyalty”. If you served me fries with ketchup I like more, I’d start looking for that brand. Likewise, if I was looking for a different condiment and there happened to be a Heinz-branded option, that wouldn’t increase my likelihood of buying it.
When I needed a wagon for college, the Miata got replaced with a WRX, when the WRX needed a new engine, in came an A4, when I realized I could handle RWD just fine in the Winter, a 2-series came into the picture, and when I missed the Miata, I got a 986. I get the product from the brand that specializes in it. I loved my Mazda roadster, but that doesn’t mean I would’ve loved their wagons. Likewise, I love my Boxster now, but I would never consider a Panamera or Macan as a family car. That’s just not the purpose of that brand. If I find myself needing more seats, I’ll get a hatchback from a brand that makes good hatchbacks.
I was pretty loyal to Chevrolet when they made actually cars. Now I’m loyal to almost anyone that isn’t an American company.