Tesla to lose $15 billion in brand value by 2024, Brand Finance finds

the value of Tesla’s the brand fell 26% in 2024, the second consecutive annual decline, including an aging vehicle lineup. and CEO Elon Musk’s “antagonism,” according to research and consulting firm Brand Finance.

Tesla’s brand value is now $43 billion, down from $58.3 billion in early 2024 and $66.2 billion in early 2023, the company said in its annual ranking. Toyota is the most valuable brand in cars at $64.7 billion, behind Mercedes at $53 billion, the researchers found.

Brand Finance, based in London, conducts comprehensive consumer surveys and analyzes the financial economics of thousands of companies, analyzing revenues, licensing agreements, margins and more, to estimate the monetary value of brands. Assessments include corporate brands and sub-brands associated with individual product lines.

As part of this year’s ranking of the company, Brand Finance analyzed the responses of 175,000 survey respondents from around the world, including about 16,000 people who shared their opinion about Tesla.

The results show the consumer perspective Tesla It’s very different from the Wall Street valuation.

Tesla’s share price rose 63% last year, hitting a record high in December, after investors bought the stock. Donald Trump’s election victory last month. Musk contributed $277 million to help propel Trump and other Republican candidates to victory, and is willing to influence the administration for the benefit of his companies.

As for the wider public, Brand Finance CEO David Haigh says Musk’s political rhetoric and public persona have their downsides.

“There are people who think it’s wonderful, but many who don’t,” Haigh said. “If you’re buying electric vehicles, it’s likely that his personality will influence whether you want to buy a car from his company, but that’s only one of many factors.”

On key measures such as “consideration”, “popularity” and “recommendation”, Tesla’s scores fell in the main markets where it operates factories and sells cars – the US, Europe and Asia, Brand Finance found.

A consideration score shows whether people would consider buying from a brand. The reputation score shows how well respondents think of a brand on average on a scale of 1 to 10. And the recommendation score indicates whether people will speak favorably of a brand.

Tesla saw a significant decline in its scores in Europe, where it dropped from 21% to 16% on average from 2024 to 2025.

Competitors Mercedes and BYD beat out Tesla especially in terms of non-US considerations and recommendation scores

Tesla maintained a high 90% loyalty score in the US, however. This means that customers who already owned a Tesla vehicle were likely to continue driving for the next 12 months. But Tesla’s recommendation score in the US fell from 8.2 out of 10 to 4.3.

Haigh said Tesla’s scores and declining brand value are signs of the company’s “weakening pulling power.” There’s a risk, he said, that “Tesla won’t be able to sell as many products, and it won’t be able to sell them at as high a price as before.”

There were already worrying signs. Tesla deliveries by 2024 It fell about 1% to 1.79 million, even as demand for battery electric vehicles grew worldwide. In the US, Tesla’s electric vehicle market share fell 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 dropped from 80 to just over 65. The score indicates how well a brand is doing on intangible measures compared to its competitors.

“Unless Tesla creates a whole range of products that will really excite consumers, and mitigate the antagonism caused by the leader, they will see that they have passed their peak and will begin to decline,” Haigh. he said

Measuring musk

Musk has not limited his political activity to the US, it seems in a regular relationship He has praised and worked with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s Javier Milei and made public appearances with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

Recently he accepted Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which pressured British officials to release the anti-immigrants. Tommy Robinsona convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record, from prison.

In public remarks following Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Musk repeatedly used a gesture Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who focuses on fascism, described it as “a very belligerent, Nazi greeting”. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

As for consumer attitudes, “There’s going to be a small number who say, I don’t care what they do. I just want their product,” Haigh said. “There are levels of people who care about other levels, up to those who say I don’t touch that product on principle.”

Tesla is unique in the close connection between the company’s brand and its leaders.

With Tesla, “it’s very clear who the CEO is, that person is in charge and their behavior will affect the reputation of the company,” 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.

X’s overall brand value fell 26% to $498 million from $673 million, the company estimated. Brand X’s simple awareness dropped from 2022, when the company was still known as Twitter, from 94% to 78% internationally today. Before Musk took over and changed the name, Twitter was valued at $5.7 billion in 2022.

The name change accounted for some of the overall decline, according to Brand Finance, but so did user, advertiser and ad revenue.

“Twitter was very popular, well-liked and attracted a lot of advertising,” Haigh said. “Overnight, when it changed to X, according to our data, that reduced the value by about 75%. It went straight down and has continued to go down.”

For SpaceX, which Brand Finance began evaluating in early 2024, the company’s brand value has increased 11% to $3.8 billion. About 45% of US respondents were familiar with SpaceX, a high-ranking aerospace and defense company.

The Starlink brand, calculated separately from SpaceX, is valued at $2.4 billion, the company found. That number is expected to increase as the company continues to add new users and show steady monthly subscriber revenue.

Brand Finance will publish theirs Global 500 2025 analysis of the world’s most valuable brands on Tuesday in Davos.

SEE: Why Bank of America Downgraded Tesla