Elon Musk’s ‘polarizing and partisan actions’ may have cost Tesla more than 1 million U.S. EV sales, Yale study finds

Elon Musk, wearing a black DOGE hat and with a black eye, looks down and frowns. (Credit: Tom Brenner—The Washington Post/Getty Images)

At the beginning of the year, Tesla investors pleaded with CEO Elon Musk to take a step back from his new role as the leader of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and give more attention to the ailing EV company. A new study from Yale University economists suggests those investors were right to worry.

A working paper issued this month found Musk’s “polarizing and partisan actions” over the past three years cost Tesla between 1 million and 1.26 million vehicles in U.S. sales, while boosting the sales of its EV competitors by 17% to 22%.