Trade-ins of Tesla vehicles appear to have reached an all-time high amid a brand crisis partly attributed to CEO Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration. A year ago, Teslas accounted for 0.4% of all vehicles traded in at traditional dealerships, the Washington Post reports. That figure doubled to 0.8% in January and tripled to 1.2% in February before climbing to 1.4% as of March 15, according to car shopping website Edmunds, whose data excludes trade-ins towards new Tesla purchases, per Mashable. If the trend holds, this would mark Edmunds' highest monthly rate of Tesla trade-ins ever, per Reuters.
There are also fewer people shopping for a Tesla on the Edmunds site: 1.8% of visitors down from 3.3% in November, according to the site. On Cars.com, searches for used Teslas in February were down 16% from January and 7% from the previous year. Though recent vandalism targeting Teslas in the US and Canada is one concern, "brand loyalty is becoming a bigger question mark as factors such as Elon Musk's increasing public involvement in government, Tesla depreciation concerns and its increased saturation in major metro areas leave some longtime owners feeling disconnected from the brand," says Jessica Caldwell, head of insights for Edmunds.
"Tesla enjoyed exclusivity and market dominance for quite a long time, but other automakers are getting into the EV space," adds Cars.com analyst David Greene, noting searches for non-Tesla electric vehicles have increased 28% over the last year, per the Post. This is just a peek at Tesla's troubles, Greene says. Though Tesla just received a brand loyalty award, available market data is slow to reflect buyer interest, which "can shift on a dime," he says. Mashable reports prices for used Teslas have fallen by 10%, "a much bigger drop in value than used cars made by other automotive brands." These prices will likely fall further as trade-ins reach the market, Reuters reports. (More Tesla stories.)
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