Anyone following the Tesla story will also be familiar with the stereotype that Tesla owners are rabid fans of Elon Musk, and their electric car purchases are driven by their admiration of the CEO. If the results of a recent survey are any indication, however, it appears that Tesla buyers actually have a much more nuanced view of Elon Musk.
When Elon Musk unveiled the Model S, he noted that Tesla’s goal has always been to make the best car, bar none. Not the best electric car, but the best car. In many ways, Tesla has accomplished this, with its vehicles outperforming their fossil fuel-powered rivals on both tech and raw performance. Respondents of the survey generally agreed with this, with customers usually liking Tesla’s electric cars simply because they are great vehicles.
The study was conducted by behavior and analytics firm Escalent, which surveyed over 1,000 respondents that matched US new-vehicle buyers’ demographics. The respondents included 100 Tesla owners, 100 owners of other EVs, and 803 drivers who currently drive a non-electric car.
Among those who considered buying a Tesla, the top five attributes identified by the EV shoppers as driving their consideration for the company were range, performance and acceleration, styling, build quality, and the uniqueness of Tesla’s EVs.
