Tesla Inc. joined the ranks of grown-up automakers five years ago this month, by cranking up production of its Model 3 electric car to more than 5,000 cars a week. It was a breakthrough for Tesla and the start of a new phase for the car industry. “I think we just became a real car company,” CEO Elon Musk wrote to his employees at the time.

Soon after, Bloomberg set out to determine whether those first mass-produced EVs lived up to the hype. More than 7,000 verified Model 3 owners completed our comprehensive survey of the vehicle and the experience of owning one. One key takeaway was unequivocal: Tesla had created an internal-combustion killer. Owners credited Musk for pulling off the impossible.

Since then, a lot has changed. Tesla is now far and away the world’s most valuable automaker, and Musk its richest inhabitant and provocateur. Bloomberg reconnected with thousands of the original survey responders — who together have put 100 million miles on their Teslas — to see how the first class of high-volume EVs holds up.

Once again, a single survey result stood out. This time, it had to do with the man rather than the automobile.

Loving the car, hating the tweets

Tesla’s most ardent early adopters have, to a significant extent, soured on the boss. Out of dozens of questions repeated verbatim from our 2019 survey, the steepest change of opinion was the drop in Musk’s approval. In total, the follow-up survey posed more than 130 questions; the lowest scores went to Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter — which he renamed X — and to the divisive tweets that followed.

The survey comments were intense, and many felt conflicted. Model 3 owners still overwhelmingly loved their cars and had a lot to say about Tesla’s technology, which we cover extensively in this three-part presentation of the results. Most owners planned to stick with the brand. But they also reported feeling a sense of betrayal as Musk picked political fights online, downplayed the potential consequences of climate change and backed controversial figures and ideas.

I love the vehicles but do not want to support someone who has such vitriol and low opinion of the very people who have made Tesla a success.

To put this in terms many Tesla owners will relate to, respondents rated Musk lower than they did Tesla’s infamously unavailable customer-service phone line.

When the Model 3 first arrived, it had its own flaws. As an experiment in creating a new type of car, Tesla pursued novel approaches to service, charging and software updates. Panel gaps and other minor issues became a point of fixation for Tesla’s critics, who believed a lack of automotive experience would inhibit the company from ever excelling in the nuts and bolts of making cars by the millions.

Now, Tesla is a force in high-volume global manufacturing. The Model 3 has undergone countless improvements, and preparations are underway for a significant refresh. But the first adopters still love the original. When asked to compare their vehicles today to previous ones they’ve owned or driven, the level of satisfaction they reported leaves little room for improvement.

The near-universal praise for the Model 3 makes the owners’ criticisms of Musk all the more stark. Much of the souring has to do with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the social media service Musk uses obsessively. In the lead-up to Tesla’s production breakthrough in 2018, Musk could sometimes be found slumped on the floor of his office between meetings, doom-scrolling tweeted predictions of his failure as they came precariously close to coming true, according to interviews with his colleagues from that time.

“I have made the mistaken assumption,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in 2018, “of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. That is my mistake. I will correct it.”

Musk didn’t end up following through on that pledge. Back then, he called the platform “meme war land.” Now, he owns the battlefield.

Musk holds an unusual degree of sway over Tesla customers. Part of the reason for that, according to some survey respondents, was a sense of a shared mission — namely the spread of clean energy and battery-powered cars that prioritize safety and performance. In our 2019 survey, more than half of Model 3 buyers said their opinion of Musk influenced their purchase. They stuck with him through prior scandals and took a risk on his cars when they were still unproven.

One thing that hasn’t changed much since 2019 is Model 3 owners’ conviction about never wanting another gasoline-powered car. Among owners who were planning to buy a new vehicle for their household in the next few years, 96% of the options under consideration were electric.

Opinions of Tesla, the company, have slipped from the extreme levels of support in 2019, but remain high. The sense of community between owners has fallen, too, which might be inevitable as the carmaker grows. At the time of the previous survey, some owners reported that they would always give a friendly wave when they saw another Tesla on the road, and conversations with strangers at the Supercharger station were common.

Views about Musk are worse among people who follow his public statements closely, and worse still among Democrats. For Americans who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election, opinions of Musk flipped, with a favorability rating of 4.44, versus 2.59 from Biden voters. Even Trump voters, though, were unenthused about the Twitter takeover (3.66).

Most Model 3 owners said Musk’s public statements have damaged the brand and impeded Tesla’s mission. His once-fervent supporters were split over whether he remains a positive role model for other business leaders.

Some owners said he’s still the right person for the job, even if X has been a significant distraction for him and for Tesla.

I feel like my original interest in Tesla was partly built on my trust and interest in him, and now my continued interest in Tesla survives despite him.

After answering a dozen questions about Musk, Tesla owners were given a chance to submit comments about him in their own words. Those responses can be explored below, sorted by the overall approval rating the respondent gave for Musk. Comments have been lightly edited for readability and appropriateness.

For the most part, owners say their disapproval of Musk won’t affect their buying decisions. The Model Y sport utility vehicle is on pace to become the best-selling vehicle in the world, of any type, this year.

But a notable minority say they’re done with Tesla, potentially costing the company not only repeat business, but also some of the word-of-mouth goodwill that helped establish the brand. Model 3 owners who sold off their Teslas in the last few years cited disapproval of the CEO as the most frequent motivation.

Maybe Musk has made the calculation that a shift in sentiment among Republicans will offset any rise in dissatisfaction from his early customer base. At this point, there’s more room for market expansion in Texas than in California, where Teslas already crowd the streets.

Whatever the case, there’s probably never been an automotive CEO whose personal brand was so closely entwined with vehicle demand.

I'd prefer he not be so tied to the image of Tesla. I don't want my car to be an Elon Musk conversation starter.

Cybertruck interest tops the charts

We asked Model 3 owners looking to buy another vehicle in the next two years which cars they’re considering. Tesla models dominated the results, taking up the top six choices. Perhaps the biggest surprise was just how much Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck dominated the list. More owners were actively considering a Cybertruck than the next five choices combined.

Shoppers were also taking a close look at Rivian Automotive Inc., whose R1S SUV and R1T pickup were the top two models among alternative brands. The Irvine, California-based automaker’s production has surged this year. The preference for American pickups is partly explained by the survey’s demographics, with approximately 70% of responses coming from the US.

One reason so many owners remain loyal to the Tesla brand despite harboring strong misgivings about the CEO is that they simply love their cars. We explore those results more in Part II of the survey project.

Up Next:
Tesla Survey Part II: Model 3 Holds Up