| Dennis Levitt got his first Tesla, a blue Model S, in 2013, and loved it. "It was so much better than any car I've ever driven," the 73-year-old self-storage company executive says. Levitt bought into the brand as well as Elon Musk, Tesla Inc.'s charismatic chief executive officer, purchasing another Model S the following year and driving the first one across the country. In 2016, he stood in line at a showroom near his home in suburban Los Angeles to be one of the first to order two Model 3s — one for himself and the other for his wife. "I was a total Musk fanboy," Levitt says. Was, because while Levitt still loves his Teslas, he's soured on Musk. "Over time, his public statements have really come to bother me," Levitt says, citing the CEO's spats with US President Joe Biden, among others. "He acts like a seven-year-old." Before it was reported Musk had an affair with Sergey Brin's wife, which he's denied; before his slipshod deal, then no-deal to acquire Twitter Inc.; before the revelation he fathered twins with an executive at his brain-interface startup Neuralink; before SpaceX fired employees who called him "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment"; before his daughter changed her name and legal gender after his history of mocking pronouns; before an article said SpaceX paid an employee $250,000 to settle a claim he sexually harassed her, allegations he's called untrue; Musk's behavior was putting off prospective customers and perturbing some Tesla owners. The trends have shown up in one consumer survey and market research report after another — Tesla commands high brand awareness, consideration and loyalty, and customers are mostly delighted by its plug-in cars. Musk, however, has been a common subject of critique. "We hear from Tesla owners who will say, 'Look, I love my vehicle, but I really wish I didn't have to respond to my friends and family about his latest tweet,'" says Mike Dovorany, who spoke with thousands of EV owners and potential buyers during two years working with research firm Escalent. In one survey, Escalent found Musk was the most negative aspect of the Tesla brand among electric vehicle owners. Tesla has so far had no trouble growing its way through Musk's many controversies. The dip in vehicle deliveries the company reported last quarter was its first sequential decline since early 2020 and largely had to do with Covid-related lockdowns in Shanghai that shut down its most productive factory for weeks. Competitors that have been chasing the company for a decade are probably still years away from catching up in the EV sales rankings. Musk's star power has also contributed immensely to Tesla's brand, especially since it's shunned traditional advertising. But by making Tesla and himself so synonymous, then wading into touchy political conflicts, attempting to buy one of the world's most influential social media platforms and batting back unflattering coverage of his personal life, Musk has put the company's increasingly valuable brand at risk. Levitt, the self-described former Musk fanboy, took a test ride last month in a Lucid. He wasn't sold on it, partly, he says because it didn't have enough cargo space for his golf gear. He's still waiting for another automaker to steal him away from Tesla and considering models from Audi, Mercedes and BMW. "If you take Mr. Musk and his antics out of the equation, I'm about 98% certain that my next car would be a Tesla," Levitt says. "His antics put me in play."
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