Published in Marketing Week, February 2025.
Elon Musk has become an increasingly divisive figure in recent years – but can his rightward shift sell more electric cars? Behavioural science says it might.
Even if you’re an infrequent user of X (or Twitter, if you’d prefer) you’re bound to have come across Elon Musk’s opinions. He’s a voracious tweeter.
According to analysis by The Economist he posts 220 times on average per week — and these comments are promoted heavily by the algorithm. It’s enough to make you wonder how he has enough time to run so many businesses.
His posts are also increasingly political. Again, The Economist notes that between 2016 and 2021, about 40% of his posts focused on Tesla and SpaceX. Now, it’s only 11%. Meanwhile, his political posts have risen from less than 4% to over 13%, covering mostly immigration, free speech and crime. There’s a definite swing rightwards.
Much of the ad industry commentary has been about the risk of alienating left-leaning users of Tesla and X. And there’s evidence of an “X-odus”. Ofcom reported that the UK usership of X has fallen by 4 million users since Musk’s takeover.
But there’s a flipside. Musk’s swing rightwards has the ability to attract new groups to electric cars. His political positioning might detoxify electric cars among MAGA enthusiasts, for one.
If you’re interested in reducing the world’s CO2 output, that’s a positive thing. After all, switching someone from a Ford F-150 truck to a Tesla has a much greater impact than winning over a Corolla driver. The F-150 has carbon emissions of 3.72kg per 10km; a Tesla Model X is just 0.99kg. So, a switch reduces emissions by 2.73kg. Much more than you might get from someone who’s already on the side of the climate — Corolla to Tesla saves 0.98kg. That’s why persuading the big truck audience is so valuable.
These numbers might downplay the impact; if an eco-conscious purchaser moves away from Tesla they’ll be able to find plenty of other electric alternatives. In effect, there’s no negative effect on the planet.
The messenger effect
Of course, you might be wondering about the logic of this argument. Do Musk’s political views matter? Surely, the appeal of a product is independent of the political views of the person espousing it?
But evidence suggests otherwise. In 2015, Jenny Riddell and I surveyed 1,004 nationally representative voters about their views on raising VAT by one penny to fund 10,000 extra nurses. We then split the results by political affiliation. The twist was that half the respondents were told it was a Conservative policy and half Labour.
When left-leaners thought the policy came from Labour, there was strong support: 14% completely agreed. However, support among this group plummeted to 3% when it was described as a Conservative policy.
A similar bias was seen among Tory voters. The VAT increase was four times more popular when it was seen to come from the Conservative party.
Clearly then, policy is not judged purely on facts. When it comes to political messaging — and the environment is becoming increasingly politicised — the person who delivers a message can be more important than what is said.
But that’s not the only benefit of Musk’s approach. A second benefit is the way he downplays the eco-reasons for buying a Tesla.
There’s evidence that conservatives are more willing to buy green technology when other benefits are emphasised. For example, in 2013 Dena Gromet from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania led a study into sustainable purchasing.
She gave 210 participants money to buy lightbulbs. They were offered either energy-efficient bulbs or a standard model, costing $1 less.
When the energy-efficient bulbs were positioned as saving money in the long-term, conservatives and liberals opted for them in equal measure. However, when the energy-efficient bulbs were also emblazoned with a “protect the environment” sticker the proportion of conservatives buying them dropped. They were actively put off by the concept of saving the planet.
Gromet’s study identified an interesting insight — if you want to encourage behaviours that have a positive impact on the environment, you don’t necessarily have to focus on that element. Especially when communicating with those on the right of the political spectrum. Better to focus on other benefits.
So, maybe there’s a useful side-effect to Musk’s musings. We can hope.
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