Tesla brand value shed $15 billion in 2024 with aging lineup, Musk at helm, researchers found
New Tesla cars are displayed at a Tesla dealership on December 20, 2024 in Corte Madera, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
The value of Tesla’s brand fell by 26% in 2024, a second straight annual decline, with factors including an aging lineup of vehicles, and CEO Elon Musk’s “antagonism,” according to research and consulting firm Brand Finance.
Tesla’s brand value now stands at an estimated $43 billion, down from $58.3 billion at the beginning of 2024 and $66.2 billion at the start of 2023, the firm said in its annual ranking. Toyota is the most valuable brand in autos 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 thousands of companies’ financials, looking at revenue, licensing agreements, margins and more, to estimate the monetary value of brands. The assessments include corporate brands and the sub-brands associated with individual product lines.
As part of the firm’s ranking this year, Brand Finance analyzed answers from about 175,000 survey respondents worldwide, including about 16,000 people who shared their views on Tesla.
The results show that the way consumers view Tesla is very different from Wall Street’s assessment.
Tesla’s stock price soared 63% last year, reaching a record in December, after investors snapped up the shares following Donald Trump’s election victory the prior month. Musk contributed $277 million to help propel Trump and other Republican candidates to victory, and is poised to wield influence in the administration to the benefit of his companies.
When it comes to the broader public, Brand Finance CEO David Haigh says that Musk’s political rhetoric and public persona has its downsides.
“There are people who think he’s wonderful, but many that don’t,” Haigh said. “If you are buying electric vehicles, his persona is highly likely to impact your view of whether or not you want to buy one of his company’s cars, but that’s only one of many factors.”
On key measures like “consideration,” “reputation” and “recommendation,” Tesla’s scores declined across the board in major markets where it operates factories and sells its cars — the U.S., 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.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
A consideration score shows whether people would consider buying from a brand. A reputation score shows how highly respondents regard a brand on average on a scale from 1 to 10. And a recommendation score indicates whether or not people are likely to speak favorably about a brand.
Tesla saw significant declines in its scores in Europe, where its consideration score dropped from 21% to 16% on average from 2024 to 2025.
Competitors Mercedes and BYD beat Tesla especially on consideration and recommendation scores outside the U.S.
Tesla maintained a high loyalty score of 90% in the U.S., however. That means customers who already owned a Tesla vehicle were likely to keep driving it over the next 12 months. But Tesla’s recommendation score in the U.S. dropped 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’s a risk, he said, that “Tesla won’t be able to sell so many products, and it won’t be able to sell at such high prices as it did before.”
There were troubling signs already. Tesla’s deliveries for 2024 declined by about 1% to 1.79 million, even though demand for battery electric vehicles increased worldwide. In the U.S. Tesla’s, market share in EVs dropped to 49% from 55% a year earlier, according to data from Cox Automotive.
Tesla’s brand strength index score, according to Brand Finance, has also dipped from just over 80 to just under 65. The score indicates how well a brand is doing compared to competitors on intangible measures.
“Unless Tesla can come up with a whole range of new products that will really excite consumers, and unless they can mitigate some of the antagonism caused by their leader, they will be seen as past their peak and will begin to go down,” Haigh said.
Measuring Musk
Musk hasn’t limited his political activity to the U.S. He has reportedly been in regular contact with with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has praised and worked with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s Javier Milei and made public appearances with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
He recently endorsed 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 a very belligerent one.” Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.
When it comes to consumer attitudes, “There’ll be a small number that say, I really don’t care what they do. I just want their product,” said Haigh. “There are other gradations of people who care, right through to those who say, I’m not touching that product on principle.”
Tesla is unique in the tight association between the company’s brand and its leader.
With Tesla, “It is very clear who the CEO is, that this person is in charge and their behavior will impact the company’s reputation,” 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.
The overall brand value of X dropped 26% to $498 million from $673 million, the firm estimated. Simple awareness of the X brand dropped from 2022, when the company was still known as Twitter, from 94% to 78% today on an international level. Before Musk took over and renamed it, Twitter had a brand value of $5.7 billion in 2022.
The name change drove part of the overall decline, according to Brand Finance, but so did the loss of users, advertisers and ad revenue.
“Twitter was very well known, very well-liked and attracted a lot of advertising,” Haigh said. “Overnight, when he changed it to X, according to our data, that reduced the value by about 75%. It went right down and has continued to go down.”
For SpaceX, which Brand Finance began to assess at the start of 2024, the company’s brand value has increased 11% to $3.8 billion. About 45% of people in the U.S. who responded to the survey were familiar with SpaceX, a high ranking for an aerospace and defense company.
The Starlink brand, calculated separately from SpaceX, is valued at $2.4 billion, the firm found. That number is expected to increase as the company continues to add new users and show consistently higher revenue from monthly subscribers.
Brand Finance will publish its Global 500 2025 study of the world’s most valuable brands on Tuesday at Davos.
WATCH: Why Bank of America downgraded Tesla
A cartoon image of US President-elect Donald Trump with cryptocurrency tokens, depicted in front of the White House to mark his inauguration, displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies sank on Tuesday, as bullish investor sentiment surrounding cryptocurrencies cooled after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
TRUMP, a token launched last week that represents the new U.S. leader, plunged 26% in 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. Meanwhile, a meme token released Sunday by first lady Melania Trump, crashed 54% in a day.
Bitcoin sank about 4% to $103,550, while ether and XRP were down 2% and 6%, respectively.
Crypto investors have hailed Trump’s arrival to the White House as a positive moment for the industry. The president has promised to introduce policies supportive of cryptocurrencies, including an accommodating regulatory framework and a federal bitcoin hoard.
While Trump is viewed as set to benefit crypto, his inauguration Monday lacked any concrete policy announcements regarding the sector. That appeared to be the primary factor taking the wind out of the crypto market’s sails on Tuesday.
Kenneth Lamont, a principal at Morningstar, warned investors not to jump into crypto trading without being properly informed about the risks involved.
“If Donald Trump delivers on his election promises, we could see cryptocurrency markets continue to surge. However, investors would do well to resist the siren call of fear of missing out, and sit on their hands,” Lamont said in emailed comments Tuesday.
Cryptocurrencies are known to be volatile. Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital coin, has previously risen or fallen by thousands of dollars in a single day. Alternative coins, or “altcoins,” like ether and XRP, have proven even more more prone to fluctuations.
“Fear of missing out is not an investment strategy. For many investors, the lure of easy wealth is strong,” Lamont said, adding that retail investors “tend to be poor at market timing, buying and selling at the worst moments.”
Technology
Bitcoin jumps to new record above $109,000 as traders cheer Trump inauguration, meme coins
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Bitcoin hit a new all-time high overnight after the incoming first couple launched a pair of meme coins and as traders await the inauguration of incoming President Donald Trump.
On Monday the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by nearly 1% at $106,622.54, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $109,350.72, after briefly dipping below the $100,000 mark Sunday.
Bitcoin hits a new record ahead of Trump inauguration
Over the weekend, Trump launched the “Official Trump” meme coin, which has risen to a $10.6 billion market cap and surged more than 659% since Friday night, according to data from CoinGecko and Coinbase. On Monday it was down about 27% from its record price of around $73 a coin, after returning First Lady Melania Trump launched her own “Melania” meme coin Sunday — nearly halving the Trump coin in value at one point.
Melania Meme, which began trading Sunday evening, has hit a $1.3 billion market cap and 14% price increase since its launch. It has attracted $7.3 billion in trading volumes over the last day, compared to the Trump meme’s $31 billion.
Although meme coins are considered the riskiest corner of the already risky cryptocurrency market, the Trumps’ coin launches over the weekend gave traders further conviction that the incoming administration will be positive for the industry.
“The move highlights President Trump’s embrace of crypto and belief that Americans should have the freedom to operate in the emerging asset class,” said Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX.
“There is a logic here that would suggest that putting a stamp of approval on what could be perceived as the wildest of crypto assets, meme coins, is the best way to send a message of just how supportive the market should expect the administration to be when it comes to embracing crypto and making America a major player in the space.”
Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter, echoed that sentiment, calling the meme drops net positive and “a sign he is very much in favor of new ideas [and] new markets.”
Bitcoin started gaining steam last week as speculation started to build that Trump might announce an executive order on crypto early in his new term. Gracy Chen, CEO crypto exchange Bitget, said that optimism is having a greater effect on its price.
“Rumors that cryptocurrency may be declared a national interest by the United States during the inauguration are having a positive effect on the price of bitcoin,” she told CNBC. “I don’t believe the rise in bitcoin’s price is due to the launch of new meme tokens. Rather … without the release of the Trump family tokens, bitcoin’s price would have grown more. Instead, capital shifted to new coins, limiting overall growth.”
The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, fell 1% on Monday and has gained less than 1% since Saturday. The token tied to Solana is down more than 7% on Monday but up 15% since Saturday, benefitting from the Trump meme coin being launched on the popular Ethereum alternative network. Ether has lost 5% since Saturday.
Bitcoin’s new record opens the door to a possible upside extension to $130,000, LMAX’s Kruger added.
Technology
TSMC is confident its CHIPS Act funding will continue under Trump, says CFO Wendell Huang
TSMC Arizona’s first chip fab on November 7, 2024
Katie Tarasov
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has accused Taiwan of “stealing” his country’s chip industry. But Taiwan’s biggest chip company is confident the Trump administration will continue funding its projects in the U.S.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has been promised $6.6 billion under the Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science ACT to help build three cutting-edge chip fabrication plants in Arizona as part of U.S. efforts to onshore chip manufacturing.
Speaking to CNBC’s Emily Tan in an exclusive interview, TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said the funding was expected to continue to roll in gradually under Trump as the fabrication plants pass construction and production milestones.
“As a matter of fact, in the fourth quarter, we already received the first batch of government support,” Haung said, revealing the contract chip manufacturer had got $1.5 billion in funds.
Following some production delays, the first fabrication plant in Arizona started producing advanced chips in the fourth quarter of last year, Huang said. He added that the construction of two plants in Arizona was on track, with the second expected to be operational in 2028.
TSMC’s first investment in Arizona was announced in May 2020, with the company’s total investment in the its three projects there eventually standing at over $65 billion.
Much of the investments were committed after the Biden administration signed the bipartisan CHIPS Act in August 2022, committing almost $53 billion to invest in the domestic semiconductor supply chain and counter China.
While the incoming President is also expected to make competition with China and onshoring manufacturing a priority in his second term, there has been debate as to whether Trump and the Republican-led House would re-examine the CHIPS Act.
During his campaign for the White House, Trump publicly criticized the bill and its price tag, arguing instead that tariffs were a more effective strategy to onshore chip manufacturing. The President-elect also accused Taiwan of “stealing” U.S. chip business.
However, industry experts have told CNBC that they expect Trump to leave the policy mostly intact due to its bipartisan support in Washington.
TSMC on Thursday reported record profit for the fourth quarter on strong demand for its AI chips, sending its shares up nearly 4%. Shares closed 1.36% higher on Friday.
In an earnings call following the esults, CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei highlighted TSMC’s “long-standing and good relationship” with the U.S. government and the commitment and support it has received on the federal, state and city levels.
“Let me assure you that we have a very frank and open communication with the current government and with the future one also,” he said in response to an investor question.
On Thursday, Wei also said that the company would not attend Trump’s inauguration as it prefers to keep a low profile.
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