New Tesla cars are displayed at a Tesla dealership on December 20, 2024 in Corte Madera, California.Â
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
The value of Tesla The brand fell 26% in 2024, a second straight annual decline, with factors including an aging vehicle lineup, AND “CEO Elon Musk Antagonism,” according to research and consulting firm Brand Finance.
Tesla’s brand value is now about $43 billion, up from $58.3 billion in early 2024 and $66.2 billion in early 2023, the firm said in its annual ranking. Toyota is the most valuable brand in cars at $64.7 billion, with Mercedes close behind at $53 billion, the researchers found.
Brand Finance, based in London, conducts comprehensive consumer surveys and analyzes the financials of thousands of companies, looking at revenues, licensing agreements, margins and more, to assess the monetary value of brands. Valuations include corporate brands and sub-brands associated with individual product lines.
As part of this year’s ranking of the firm, Brand Finance analyzed responses from around 175,000 survey respondents worldwide, including around 16,000 people who shared their views on Tesla.
The results show that the way consumers see it Tesla is very different from the Wall Street valuation.
Tesla’s share price rose 63% last year, hitting a record high in December, as investors bought the stock following Donald Trump’s election victory last month. Musk contributed $277 million to help push Trump and other Republican candidates to victory and is willing to influence the administration to benefit his companies.
When it comes to the general public, Brand Finance CEO David Haigh says Musk’s political rhetoric and public persona have their downsides.
“There are people who think he’s great, but a lot who don’t,” Haigh said. “If you’re shopping for electric vehicles, his personality will most likely influence your view on whether or not you want to buy one of his company’s cars, but that’s just one of many factors.”
On key measures such as “consideration,” “reputation” and “recommendation,” Tesla’s scores fell across the board in the main markets where it operates factories and sells its cars – the US, Europe and Asia, Brand Finance found.
Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republican Leader-elect John Thune (R-SD), in Washington, U.S., December 5, 2024.Â
Benoît Tessier | Reuters
A consideration score indicates whether people would consider buying from a brand. A reputation score shows how respondents rate a brand on average on a scale of 1 to 10. And a recommendation score shows whether people are likely to speak favorably about a brand.
Tesla saw significant declines in its results in Europe, where its consideration score fell from 21% to 16% on average from 2024 to 2025.
Competitors Mercedes and BYD beat Tesla especially in ratings and recommendation scores outside the US
However, Tesla maintained a high loyalty score of 90% in the US. This means that customers who already owned a Tesla vehicle will likely continue to drive it over the next 12 months. But Tesla’s US recommendation score fell from 8.2 out of 10 to 4.3.
Haigh said Tesla’s declining scores and brand value are a sign that the company’s “pulling power is weakening.” There is a risk, he said, that “Tesla won’t be able to sell as many products and won’t be able to sell at as high a price as before.”
There were already worrying signs. Tesla’s shipments for 2024 fell about 1% to 1.79 million, even as demand for battery electric vehicles increased worldwide. In the US, Tesla’s EV market share fell to 49% from 55% a year ago, according to data from Cox Automotive.
Tesla’s brand strength index score, according to Brand Finance, also dropped from just over 80 to just under 65. The score shows how well a brand is doing compared to competitors on intangible measures.
“If Tesla can’t come up with a whole range of new products that will really excite consumers and if they can’t mitigate some of the antagonism caused by their leader, they will be seen as past their prime and will begin to fall,” Haigh. said.
Measuring Musk
Musk has not limited his political activity in the U.S. He is said to have been in regular contact with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, praised and worked with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s Javier Milei, and has public appearance with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
He recently backed Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and pressured British officials to release anti-immigrant Tommy Robinson, a convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record, from prison.
On Monday, during his public remarks after Trump’s inauguration, Musk repeatedly used a gesture that historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, whose work focuses on fascism, described as “a Nazi salute and very combative.” Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
When it comes to consumer attitudes, “There will be a small number who say, I don’t really care what they do. I just want their product,” Haigh said. “There are other degrees of people who care, up to those who say, I’m not touching that product on principle.”
Tesla is unique in the close connection between the company’s brand and its leader.
With Tesla, “it’s very clear who the CEO is, that this person is in charge, and their behavior will affect the reputation of the company,” Haigh said.
Brand Finance also evaluated other Musk-led brands, including X, aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX and, for the first time, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet business.
X’s overall brand value fell 26% to $498 million from $673 million, the firm estimated. X’s simple brand awareness dropped from 2022, when the company was still known as Twitter, from 94% to 78% today internationally. Before Musk took over and rebranded, Twitter had a brand value of $5.7 billion in 2022.
The name change accounted for some of the overall decline, according to Brand Finance, but so did the loss of users, advertisers and ad revenue.
“Twitter was very popular, very popular and attracted a lot of advertising,” Haigh said. “Overnight, when it changed it to X, according to our data, it dropped about 75%, it went down immediately and has continued to go down.”
For SpaceX, which Brand Finance began valuing in early 2024, the company’s brand value has grown 11% to $3.8 billion. About 45% of people in the US who responded to the survey were familiar with SpaceX, a high ranking for an aerospace and defense company.
The Starlink brand, accounted for separately by SpaceX, is valued at $2.4 billion, the firm revealed. That number is expected to grow as the company continues to add new users and consistently show higher revenue from monthly subscribers.
Brand Finance will release its Global 500Â 2025 study of the world’s most valuable brands on Tuesday in Davos.
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