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The Street
The Street
Ian Krietzberg

Why Elon Musk Has Driven Some Tesla Owners to Ditch Their Cars

Elon Musk's biggest company may be Tesla, but it is far from his only company. The tech mogul owns and operates xAI and Spacex, and, although he appointed a new CEO for X, the site formely known as Twitter, in June, he still seems to hold a high-level managerial role at the company. 

And according to a new Bloomberg poll of more than 7,000 Tesla Model 3 owners, Musk's other pursuits -- specifically, Twitter -- are not doing anything to help the EV company. 

DON'T MISS: Twitter to X: The Complete Timeline of Elon Musk's Twitter Purchase

Of those who have sold their Teslas, the most common reason for doing so was "disapproval of Elon Musk," followed by concerns over quality and displeasure with Tesla's brand perception. 

Only about half of those surveyed agreed that Musk was the best person to be leading Tesla (TSLA) -); the bulk of those surveyed said that Musk's ownership of Twitter was not a positive development for the company. 

Besides issues with Musk, those surveyed said they were generally satisfied with their cars. 

Concerns over Musk's ownership of Twitter have plagued shareholders ever since he wrote the $44 billion check in October. 

Multiple analysts, including Wedbush's Dan Ives, have repeatedly discussed the negative impact Musk's rein over Twitter has had on Tesla's stock. 

More Tesla:

“It appears Musk's reign as CEO of Twitter will come to an end and thus be a major positive for Tesla's stock starting to slowly remove this albatross from the story,” Ives wrote in December. “Time to end this nightmare as CEO of Twitter.”

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates, after Musk's appointment of Linda Yaccarino, noted that the move was a good one for Tesla investors, considering Musk's hands-on approach at Twitter. 

A proposal concerning "key-person risk" was raised at Tesla's most recent Shareholder Meeting, with one investor noting the potential damage of Musk's other ventures. 

“When people look at this company…they see the company as a synonym for its CEO, and the discussion turns to everything except for where it should be focused," Karen Robertsdottir, a shareholder in Reykjavik, Iceland, said at the time. 

Tesla is currently under investigation over safety concerns and false advertising by the California attorney general. The company's stock was up a little over 1% Thursday morning. 

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