Tesla is the only EV brand with a net negative brand perception, according to the Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report – and much of the negative shift has happened in the last 6 months.
The Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report (EVIR) surveyed 8,000 US consumers to ask them questions about electric vehicle purchasing decisions, both asking about brands and finding out what they value in an EV purchase.
The most notable result of the survey is that consumers had the most negative view of Tesla – and in fact, Tesla is the only brand in the survey which received a net negative brand image.
When asked whether they have a positive or negative view of Tesla, 32% said they have a “very” or “somewhat” positive view combined, but 39% said they have a “very” or “somewhat” negative view.
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This means Tesla has a -7% net score, behind even VinFast, which has a 0% net score (mostly because most surveyed hadn’t heard of the Vietnamese brand).
As for other brands, ironically, the top-ranked EV brand was Honda, a company that only sells one full BEV in the US, the Prologue (which people like and is selling great), which it didn’t even make itself, but rather made it in partnership with GM. Chevrolet scored well also, third place overall in brand perception.
The other EV startups (Lucid, Rivian, Polestar) did tend towards the bottom of the table, but this was largely because they had comparatively lower brand awareness, and thus their net positive numbers could not have been much higher (Lucid, for example, had 9% positive and 4% negative scores). Tesla, however, had both extremely high brand awareness and negative brand association. (But you have heard of me…)
Tesla’s score gets even worse when “view intensity” is taken into account, with people 13 points more likely to have a “very negative” view than a “very positive” one.
This negative brand perception persisted through all income brackets, regions and ages, with Tesla holding last place in each category.
In every category save one, when asked whether they would consider purchasing a Tesla, the most common answer was “would never consider.”
Tesla also ranked last in a comparison of various home EV charger brands and home battery brands, with more consumers saying they “would never consider” it.
Similar numbers appeared in a question about “brand trust,” where Tesla again had negative net trust, and a much higher “distrust a lot” score than its “trust a lot” score.
Tesla performed slightly better in perceptions of safety (second last) and family-friendliness (fourth from last), but did well in perceptions of luxury, holding fifth place overall out of eighteen brands.
According to this survey, the drop in Tesla brand perception has been quite recent. EVIR asked how views of Tesla had changed over the last 6 months. 46% said their opinion hadn’t changed, but a total of 38% of people had a “more” or “much more” negative perception, versus 16% who had a “more” or “much more” positive perception.
This, again, becomes more of a severe difference when you look at the most intense answers: 27% had a “much more negative” perception, while only 6% had a “much more positive” perception – a 4.5x difference.
Overall, over the last 6 months, there was only a +1% net change in consumers positive perceptions of EVs as a whole, so this drastic recent change was limited to Tesla, not other brands.
There was one piece of good news for Tesla, though: when asked which sort of public charging equipment consumers would most prefer, Tesla came out on top… except it also came out on top of the list that consumers would least prefer.
EVIR also asked what the factors driving consumers’ interest or disinterest in purchasing an EV.
Consumers recognized the benefits of EVs, with the top factors driving EV interest being gas savings, environment/climate change, and the ability to charge at home. Consumers who were already considering buying an EV found these to be more important factors than consumers who said they aren’t thinking about an EV yet.
Unfortunately, consumers also fell victim to the myths they’ve long been told about EVs. We’ve seen for a long time that consumers claim that range is one of their main concerns with EVs, despite that there are plenty of EVs available with way more range than you actually need.
In the EVIR, consumers ranked “length of range on a battery charge” as their top concern, even though EVs on average have enough range for a full week worth of driving from the average driver.
The second and fourth concerns, “availability of charging stations” and “I couldn’t charge at my residence” are much more pertinent. While it’s common for non-EV drivers not to recognize how many chargers are available, this is an area where the EV industry could definitely improve (I’ve long been on record saying that charger availability, especially for apartment dwellers and street parkers, is the only real problem with EVs – and that solving these problems will help people recognize that giant range numbers are not as necessary as they think).
You can check out the full Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report here.
Electrek’s Take
As we’ve been warning people about for quite some time now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing his best to completely destroy Tesla’s brand.
As an EV publication, we have the same mission as Tesla – to advance sustainable transport. In order for that to happen, we obviously want the (formerly) largest EV company in the world to do its job the best it can.
The problem is, Musk doesn’t have that mission, and has been doing his best over the last year(s) to ruin Tesla’s brand perception with increasingly idiotic decisions, both in terms of his public advocacy and his work within Tesla.
This report shows the effect of the constant drumbeat of bad Tesla business moves and horrendous public behavior by the company’s CEO. The company’s employees, for the most part, are still working to try to make good electric vehicles, but Musk is spending the money he made from selling EVs to try to ruin EVs – something that the company itself had to call him out on in its quarterly report (and which the formerly-more-lucid Musk would have opposed just a few years ago before he forgot how climate change works).
We’re not sure what’s going to many any of them wake up to Musk’s destruction of the company, but this report is just one more data point showing how severe the situation has gotten.
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“Honda hydrogen is open for business,” says David Perzynski, assistant manager of hydrogen solutions development at American Honda. “(We have) the fuel cell technology, the expertise, and the supply chain to power a variety of zero-emissions products, including commercial trucking and stationary power generation.”
The company arrived with a more developed version of its Peterbilt 579EV-based HFC semi concept, which is based on one of that brand’s existing BEVs and uses the Honda fuel cell as a range-extending generator for its 120 kWh battery … or, rather, it would – if it was ever plugged into a charger.
On battery power alone, the big Pete is good for up to 150 miles of fully loaded range. With the fuel cell along for the piggyback ride, however, the truck’s range climbs to more than 500 miles at an 82,000 lb. combined vehicle weight.
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More than just a range-extender
Honda envisions a world where its hydrogen fuel cell is used in much more than transportation and logistics applications. At the ACT Expo, Honda had a scale mock-up of what a hospital-sized hydrogen backup generator could look like – and hinted that such an installation might soon become a reality.
This is all very normal for Honda
Honda FCX hydrogen fuel cell concept; via Honda.
If it seems weird that Honda is pushing hydrogen so hard these days, it shouldn’t. Honda’s been developing hydrogen fuel cells for nearly forty years, and put its first hydrogen fuel cell car (the FCX concept, above) all the way back in 1999.
Since then, it’s put a number of hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles into series production, including the innovative Honda CR-V HFC hybrid that lets you fill the car’s 17.7 kWh battery with electrons at home for up to 29 miles of all-electric driving, then fill up the hydrogen tank for another 241 miles of driving … and they’re not stopping there.
We had a chance to chat with David Perzynski on Quick Charge last year, where he talked us through some of Honda’s hydrogen plans in more detail. You can check it out, below.
Volkswagen of America is recalling nearly 5,700 2025 VW ID. Buzz vans because the NHTSA says the third-row bench seat is too spacious. (For real.)
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the third-row bench is physically wide enough for three people, but it’s only designed to hold two, so it’s only equipped with two seat belts. That mismatch violates Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, which covers occupant crash protection. A bench that invites three passengers but only protects two isn’t just awkward – it’s a safety risk. It simply makes it too easy to squeeze that third person in the back “just that once” without a seatbelt, and that’s inviting trouble.
Volkswagen will fix the ID. Buzz issue by having dealers install “fixed unpadded trim parts” that adjust the seat’s usable width, and they’ll do it for free, because recall repairs are always free. It’ll probably be hard plastic on the seat to ensure a third person can’t squeeze in. Owner notification letters are expected to go out starting June 20, 2025.
Volkswagen has reported that, to date, there have been “no field claims known” of safety issues caused by the extra-wide third row bench seat.
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Electric vehicle charging and battery storage specialists Zenobē have inked a deal with Canadian leasing company 7Gen to fund more than 500 commercial EVs and their associated charging infrastructure.
Last week, Zenobē agreed to provide up to $48 million (Canadian) in debt financing to 7Gen to help expand its vehicle-as-a-service electric truck leasing program across Canada.
7Gen supports fleet operators with a comprehensive set of vehicle leasing and financing solutions that cover EV charger deployment, energy management systems, and ongoing operational support for Canadian fleet customers operating electric trucks, vans, and school buses.
Zenobē secured $1.6 billion in equity from its joint majority shareholders KKR and M&G Infracapital to fuel its global expansion into EVs and grid-scale batteries back in 2023. Since then, it’s grown to support more than 2,000 EVs and 120 charging depots across markets in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
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“We’re bringing our innovative funding approach to Canada and specifically to 7Gen,” says Steven Meersman, Co-Founder and Director of Zenobē. “We see momentum behind decarbonization in Canada’s supportive government policies and the clean, affordable power that will ensure a lower total cost of ownership for zero-emissions vehicles. We look forward to sharing our global experience electrifying over 120 depots to benefit 7Gen, its fleet customers and the wider electric fleet market in Canada.”
That innovative funding strategy is something Steven and I had a chance to discuss this week at the ACT Expo in Anaheim, California. “We’re being very careful in the way we approach the North American market,” he said (paraphrasing). “The market is fairly littered with the graves of other UK EV companies that have tried to find a foothold here and failed, so we’re being very careful about our partners.”
Despite living just a few minutes from his Chicago HQ, I’d never met Steven before this week. He’s a super-interesting guy and you will definitely learn a thing or two about how to build a multimillion dollar energy management company like Zenobē from our upcoming podcast (stay tuned for that). But the news here is 7Gen.
“Zenobē’s debt financing supports 7Gen’s next growth step and allows us to help our customers step up the pace of their EV adoption and benefit immediately from operational cost savings,” says Frans Tjallingii, CEO, 7Gen. “Zenobē’s team is well aligned with ours and we are thrilled to partner to scale our impact in Canada together.”
The company will begin rolling out its Zenobē-funded electric trucks in the coming weeks, with new partners and projects set to be announced shortly.
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