He has many gripes with the liberal Golden State and is not shy about voicing them. But his chickens may be coming home to roost as Tesla sales in California have taken a significant hit.

This makes the state an extremely fertile marketplace for EV manufacturers, and in recent years one brand has been synonymous with the electric auto revolution — Tesla. But there may be trouble ahead for Elon Musk’s company.

Based on post-sale registrations recorded when a vehicle’s title is processed, demand for new Teslas nose dived 24% to 52,211 vehicles in the second quarter of this year. This is particularly concerning in a state where more than one in five new cars sold are electric.

The California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA) may have put it best when publishing the figures: “Tesla’s allure seems to be wearing off.”

Registrations of competing Rivian EVs rose by an impressive 69% this quarter to just under 4,000 vehicles, positioning Rivian as the fastest-growing major brand in the state of California.

Or perhaps Tesla, or rather Elon Musk, might be responsible for its own declining fortunes. Musk may be actively pushing away EV enthusiasts, particularly those in California.

This is causing some more liberal EV owners to reassess their association with Musk’s brand. A well-known Malibu Tesla owner Miss Jilianne, who frequently posts videos of Full-Self Driving Tesla beta tests to social media, took to X to express her sentiment that it might be time to ditch her Tesla for a Rivian.

Electric cars are viewed, almost to the level of parody, as a democratic, liberal fancy. Yet it is precisely this customer base that Musk is alienating by doing things like so enthusiastically supporting Trump and positioning X as a strongly conservative platform.

Most recently, he announced that he will be moving both SpaceX and X Corp from California to Texas, citing California’s new gender identity law as his reason for doing so.

Tesla has a 53% market share in the first half of 2024, meaning all other competitors combined — including Rivian with its 3.6% share — still have fewer EVs on the roads than Tesla.

California is an EV pioneer in many regards, including trialing new road-tax models for electric vehicles that may be adopted by other states. There is a position to be taken that as goes California, so goes the national EV market.

Tesla’s brand identity is intrinsically linked to Musk’s. When such a conservative figure is synonymous with something as liberal as the EV revolution, it’s no wonder consumers are beginning to feel a conflict and are losing their interest in Tesla.