About half of Americans have negative views of Tesla and Elon Musk, CNBC survey finds

The broad public and investors have something in common these days: They don’t have a lot of love for either Tesla or CEO Elon Musk.

Tesla’s stock has undergone a withering sell-off, and the CNBC All-America Economic survey finds more than 47% of the public have a negative view of the company. Another 27% are positive on the electric vehicle maker, while 24% are neutral. That compares with a third of the public who have a positive view of General Motors with 51% neutral and 10% negative.

Tesla has been under pressure with concern that its founder’s controversial political activities in cutting government employment and backing President Donald Trump and Republicans could be alienating prospective buyers. Protests have sprung up across the nation at Tesla offices.

The survey found Musk to be a highly polarizing figure. Half of the public has a negative view of Musk, compared with 36% who see him positively and 16% who are neutral. Among Democrats, Musk’s net approval (positive minus negative) is -82 and -49 for independents. GOP respondents are +56.

The biggest problem for Tesla may be that many groups who are potential customers are far more positive about electric vehicles than they are about the company.

“Where Tesla is strongest is among the people least likely to buy an EV,” said Micah Roberts, partner at Public Opinion Strategies, the Republican pollster for the survey.

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Overall, 35% of Americans are negative on EVs and 33% are positive. Men, however, are +11 in net approval of EVs but evenly divided on Tesla. Young people aged 18-34 are +19 on EV’s but -23 on Tesla. The gap is most stark among Democrats, who are +20 on EV’s but -74 on Tesla.

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Further complicating the issue: Republicans are strongly positive on Tesla, but net negative on EV’s.

The survey of 1,000 people nationwide was conducted April 9 through April 13 and has a margin of error of +/-3.1%.