Tesla ranks under UnitedHealth, Temu, BP in brand reputation poll due to Musk
The 2025 version of the Axios Harris poll of brand reputation is out, and it shows a sharp decline in the reputation of Tesla and other Elon Musk-related brands, putting them among the lowest-ranked brands in America, largely due to the toxicity of Musk himself.
The Axios Harris Poll 100 ranks brand reputation of America’s 100 most visible companies, and asks a sample of thousands of Americans how they feel about each brand.
The survey is a collaboration between Axios and Harris that has been going on since 2019, though is based on 20 years of similar Harris Poll research before then, starting in 1999. It has developed its own reputation as a reliable way to take temperature of the American public’s opinion on various high profile brands.
It’s conducted through multiple samples of thousands of Americans, asking them what the most high-profile brands are, how familiar they are with those brands, and their opinions of those brands.
Tesla has been ranked in the survey many times over the years, with varying results. In the first poll in 2019, it ranked 42nd, with a brand score of 75.4 out of 100.
But Tesla rose from there, ranking 18th in 2020 and reaching a high-water mark as the 8th most trusted brand in America in 2021, with a reputation score of 80.2 out of 100.
Since then, the company’s shine has started to tarnish, and it has been dropping in the rankings. 2022 saw a slight dip to #12 and a score of 79.5, but in 2023 Tesla took a huge hit, dropping a whopping 50 places in the rankings. Axios titled the poll the “year of the tarnished titans” partially due to Tesla’s huge drop.
But the drop didn’t stop there, as Tesla dropped another position in 2024, down to #63, but with a brand score that would still at least be a barely-passing grade (for a lenient teacher), at 72.5 out of 100.
But this year’s poll shows that things just continue to get worse, and in fact, the reputation damage is accelerating.
In 2025, Tesla dropped another 32 places into 95th place, and down to a brand score of 61.3, a huge numerical drop in both position and brand score.
The only companies ranked worse are:
#96 Wells Fargo – which defrauded its customers and was fined ~$3 billion for it. Incidentally, the fraud was uncovered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government organization which Elon Musk is trying to dismantle.
#97 Meta (Facebook) – This feels self-explanatory, but just about everyone is unhappy with Facebook, for reasons with varying levels of rationality behind them.
#98 Twitter – Also run by Elon Musk, which has been flooded with Nazi rhetoric and disinformation after he wasted $44 billion and most of his time on it (though it consistently ranked poorly even before Musk’s takeover0.
#99 The Trump Organization – I mean, it has the name of the highest-profile traitor to America right there in the name.
#100 Spirit Airlines – The “most hated airline in America,” butt of innumerable jokes, with generally low levels of service.
SpaceX, the third company run by Musk on the list, also earned a low reputation score, ranking 86th with a score of 66.4.
Notably, there are several companies with bad reputations ranked above Tesla, many of which have had high-profile scandals either recently or that still loom large in the public consciousness.
For example, those in the title of this article: BP, which presided over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; UnitedHealth, which is currently imploding and whose former CEO was recently murdered in broad daylight and lots of people kind of didn’t seem to mind it; and Temu, which has faced data privacy lawsuits and is the butt of many jokes for selling low quality products, on top of general anti-China sentiment.
For a few other names, another Chinese app, TikTok, is also ranked above Tesla. As is Fox Corporation, one of the largest purveyors of misinformation and causes of the political division we see in America today. And finally, Boeing, which spent last year wracked by scandals, yet is 7 places above Tesla on this year’s list.
Meanwhile, every other automaker on the list ranked higher than Tesla by at least 35 places (Ford, #60).
Electrek’s Take
So, the news is quite bad for Tesla. But why is Tesla ranked so low?
Well, as you may have divined from our repeated mention of a certain name, the primary reason is Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
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.
Musk has presided over an incredible amount of brand damage to Tesla, with the company ranking the lowest of any US EV brand in a recent survey. This negative perception seems to apply to pretty much any question asked about the brand, including its standout Supercharger network, which suggests that the reason isn’t anything to do with Tesla’s products.
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.
Musk’s high-profile political advocacy, which has included support for German neo-Nazis and agreeing with a defense of Hitler’s actions in the Holocaust, among many other white supremacist statements, has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and pushed many customers away. The first round of the poll started on Jan 22, which means it captured the period after Musk did two back-to-back Nazi salutes in public.
Beyond politics, Musk’s leadership (or lack thereof) has also resulted in Tesla putting all of its effort into products that either don’t work or don’t sell, instead of focusing on Tesla’s strengths like its cost advantages and Supercharger network.
So, once again, this report shows the effect of the constant drumbeat of bad Tesla business moves and horrendous public behavior by the company’s CEO.
Indeed, it seems like the legend of the “Tesla killer” finally came true – and it’s Elon Musk.
The company’s employees, for the most part, are still working to succesfully 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).
Unfortunately, Tesla’s board seems content to destroy the company, and its shareholders do too, as they voted again last year to give Musk $55 billion in exchange for his bad leadership, an award that is greater than the total amount of profits Tesla has made over its entire lifetime.
That pay package was stopped by a court for violating corporate law, but Musk has spent his political influence getting Texas to rewrite its business laws to disadvantage shareholders and benefit Musk personally – even as Texas continues to block Tesla from selling cars in the state Musk unwisely moved its headquarters to.
We’re not sure what’s going to make Tesla’s board (which have been dumping TSLA stock like mad) or shareholders 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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Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
OpenAI has finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a record $500 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the transaction.
Bloomberg was first to report that the deal had closed.
CNBC reported in August that OpenAI was looking to conduct a secondary share sale at a valuation of $500 billion, with investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price.
While OpenAI had authorized up to $10.3 billion in shares for sale — an increase from the original $6 billion target — only about two-thirds of that amount ultimately changed hands.
The person briefed on internal discussions said that lower participation is being viewed internally as a vote of confidence in the company’s long-term prospects, and a sign that investor appetite remains strong, even at a $500 billion valuation — up sharply from $300 billion earlier this year.
The offer was presented to eligible current and former employees in early September, with participation open to those who had held shares for more than two years.
The share sale marks OpenAI’s second major tender offer in less than a year, following a $1.5 billion deal with SoftBank in November.
This latest transaction cements OpenAI’s status as the world’s most valuable privately held company, surpassing SpaceX’s valuation of $456 billion.
The sale also comes amid intensifying competition for AI talent. Meta, in particular, has reportedly offered nine-figure compensation packages in a bid to recruit top researchers.
OpenAI is among a growing cohort of high-profile startups — including SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks — using secondary sales that allow employees to cash out while staying private. The move is widely seen as a strategy to retain talent and reward long-term employees without pursuing an IPO.
WATCH: OpenAI’s $850 billion buildout contends with grid limits
It’s October 1st, which means the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit is dead and gone. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for EVs, however – BMW, Ford, GM, and others are stepping up with big rebates, clever accounting tricks, and huge discounts to keep the deals rolling! All this and more on today’s stylin’, profilin’, limousine-riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ episode of Quick Charge!
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We’ve also got a hard-hitting look at both the EV and oil subsidies impacting the auto market at large, and what it means to give these two different technologies a level playing field to compete for customers on.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Climate XChange, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to help states pass effective, equitable climate policies. The nonprofit just kicked off its 10th annual EV raffle, where participants have multiple opportunities to win their dream EV.
Visit CarbonRaffle.org/Electrek to learn more!
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Solar and wind accounted for 90% of new US electrical generating capacity added in the first seven months of 2025, according to data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In July, solar alone provided 96% of new capacity, making it the 23rd consecutive month solar has held the lead among all energy sources.
Solar’s new generating capacity in July and YTD
In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through July 31, 2025), which was reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign, FERC says 46 “units” of solar totaling 1,181 megawatts (MW) were placed into service in July, accounting for over 96.4% of all new generating capacity added during the month.
The 434 units of utility-scale (>1 MW) solar added during the first seven months of 2025 total 16,050 MW and were 74.4% of the total new capacity placed into service by all sources.
Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for 23 consecutive months from September 2023 to July 2025. During that period, total utility-scale solar capacity grew from 91.82 gigawatts (GW) to 153.09 GW. No other energy source added anything close to that amount of new capacity. Wind, for example, expanded by 10.68 GW, while natural gas increased by just 3.74 GW.
Renewables were 90% of new capacity added YTD
Between January and July, new wind provided 3,288 MW of capacity additions – significantly more than the new capacity provided by natural gas (2,207 MW). Wind thus accounted for 15.2% of all new capacity added during the first seven months of 2025.
For the same period, the combination of solar and wind (plus 4 MW of hydropower and 3 MW of biomass) was 89.6% of new capacity, while natural gas provided just 10.2%; the balance came from coal (18 MW), oil (17 MW), and waste heat (17 MW).
Solar + wind are 23.23% of US utility-scale generating capacity
Utility-scale solar’s share of total installed capacity (11.42%) is now almost equal to that of wind (11.81%). Taken together, they constitute 23.23% of the US’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.
Moreover, at least 25-30% of US solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC’s data. Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar + wind to more than a quarter of the US total.
With the inclusion of hydropower (7.61%), biomass (1.07%), and geothermal (0.31%), renewables currently claim a 32.22% share of total US utility-scale generating capacity. If small-scale solar capacity is included, renewables are now more than one-third of total US generating capacity.
Solar still on track to become No. 2 source of US generating capacity
FERC reports that net “high probability” additions of solar between August 2025 and July 2028 total 92,631 MW – an amount more than four times the forecast net “high probability” additions for wind (22,528 MW), the second fastest-growing resource.
FERC also foresees net growth for hydropower (579 MW) and geothermal (92 MW) but a decrease of 131 MW in biomass capacity.
Taken together, the net new “high probability” capacity additions by all renewable energy sources over the next three years – the bulk of the Trump Administration’s remaining time in office – would total 115,120 MW.
There are now 35 MW of new nuclear capacity in FERC’s three-year forecast, while coal and oil are projected to contract by 25,017 MW and 1,576 MW, respectively. Natural gas capacity would expand by just 8,276 MW.
Should FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by mid-summer 2028, utility-scale solar would account for more than 17% of installed U.S. generating capacity – more than any other source besides natural gas (40%). Further, the capacity of the mix of all utility-scale renewable energy sources would exceed 38%. Inclusion of small-scale solar systems would push renewables ahead of natural gas.
“With one month of Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ now under our belts, renewables continue to dominate capacity additions,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director, Ken Bossong. “And solar seems poised to hold its lead in the months and years to come.”
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