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Respectfully, I disagree. In America, car culture is strongly correlated with identity. Ford said "They can have any color as long as it's black." His competit

Respectfully, I disagree. In America, car culture is strongly correlated with identity. Ford said "They can have any color as long as it's black." His competitors capitalized on this mistake - people wanted colored cars. Since the 1920's colored cars are the norm. Large trucks are often seen as an ideological alignment to the point that people advertise affiliations (political or otherwise) with bumper stickers, window stickers, tailgate wrappers, bed flags, etc. When I was looking for a Honda Accord my own brother pushed me to get a truck instead because it aligned more with "who I was as a man." Needless to say I rolled my eyes out of my head and bought my Honda Accord. And, with Tesla. Many EV adopters I know get satisfaction from not needing/burning gas - it's why you get an EV. Very often part of that satisfaction is that they're choosing a more environmentally sustainable option, and there's a correlation with climate politics there. --- In my anecdotal lived experience, and with my limited understanding of automotive history, I really think there's a correlation with what car you drive and what your ideologies are, political or otherwise. I think that any prudent CEO (or hell any other employee) would publicly shut the hell up right now. Part of Tesla's success is people ideologically hitching themselves to the EV bandwagon (and subsequently Musk). And, I think Musk getting spicy in the public forum is a bad thing for this all around... and apparently so do the shareholders.

LarryMullins 4y ago
Neither of your examples (Ford not selling colorful cars, and your brother wanting you to get a car for macho reasons) seems to have anything to do with people choosing an automotive brand for political identity reasons. "Truck or not truck" is plausibly a political identity matter, but "truck" is not a brand. Such people will like a truck from any truck company, if that truck is perceived to be big and manly enough.
- peterangular 4y ago
  The comment I was responding to says they don't think Elon's politics will have any bearing on car sales, because "because people don't often act on their beliefs." Paraphrasing. The line "because people don't often act on their beliefs" is what I found most egregious in regards to the automotive industry because, yeah - I think lots of people do purchase vehicles based on their beliefs (ideals). I shared some learned history and lived experience around that topic to rebut. Not looking to change anyone's world view with my comment here. I don't think I'm too far out-of-line with I'm saying: many people do buy cars based on their ideals (beliefs).
  - LarryMullins 4y ago
    The closest example I can think of for people avoiding a car brand for political reasons is "Greatest Generation"/Boomers refusing to buy cars from Honda, Toyota and other Japanese companies because of Pearl Harbor, but most of them relented eventually because the value of Japanese cars was undeniably better. This is not to say that Tesla won't suffer for Musk-induced political reasons. But I don't think this is the primary mechanism behind Tesla's downfall. Rather, I think Musk's political flailing has punctured his reality distortion bubble, so Tesla is returning to the value it rationally should have been at the whole time. It has always been a fringe manufacturer, propped up by unrealistic fantasy about the near future.
fbdab103 4y ago
>Ford said "They can have any color as long as it's black." His competitors capitalized on this mistake - people wanted colored cars. Since the 1920's colored cars are the norm. This was founded in a technical decision. Paint technology at the time was not great and could deteriorate in short order if not properly applied. The colored paints had to be painstakingly applied in multiple coats over many days. Which required having enormous lots devoted to nothing but watching paint dry. Black paint was more forgiving and a quick application still looked reasonable, allowing units to be produced more quickly.

LarryMullins 4y ago

Neither of your examples (Ford not selling colorful cars, and your brother wanting you to get a car for macho reasons) seems to have anything to do with people choosing an automotive brand for political identity reasons. "Truck or not truck" is plausibly a political identity matter, but "truck" is not a brand. Such people will like a truck from any truck company, if that truck is perceived to be big and manly enough.

peterangular 4y ago
The comment I was responding to says they don't think Elon's politics will have any bearing on car sales, because "because people don't often act on their beliefs." Paraphrasing. The line "because people don't often act on their beliefs" is what I found most egregious in regards to the automotive industry because, yeah - I think lots of people do purchase vehicles based on their beliefs (ideals). I shared some learned history and lived experience around that topic to rebut. Not looking to change anyone's world view with my comment here. I don't think I'm too far out-of-line with I'm saying: many people do buy cars based on their ideals (beliefs).
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  The closest example I can think of for people avoiding a car brand for political reasons is "Greatest Generation"/Boomers refusing to buy cars from Honda, Toyota and other Japanese companies because of Pearl Harbor, but most of them relented eventually because the value of Japanese cars was undeniably better. This is not to say that Tesla won't suffer for Musk-induced political reasons. But I don't think this is the primary mechanism behind Tesla's downfall. Rather, I think Musk's political flailing has punctured his reality distortion bubble, so Tesla is returning to the value it rationally should have been at the whole time. It has always been a fringe manufacturer, propped up by unrealistic fantasy about the near future.

fbdab103 4y ago

>Ford said "They can have any color as long as it's black." His competitors capitalized on this mistake - people wanted colored cars. Since the 1920's colored cars are the norm. This was founded in a technical decision. Paint technology at the time was not great and could deteriorate in short order if not properly applied. The colored paints had to be painstakingly applied in multiple coats over many days. Which required having enormous lots devoted to nothing but watching paint dry. Black paint was more forgiving and a quick application still looked reasonable, allowing units to be produced more quickly.