Like the rockets that SpaceX launches and that sometimes fall to the ground, the Tesla brand has lost significant altitude this year. Sentiment towards the company is at an all-time low, and Tesla is ranked at a negative, below EV maker VinFast. Vinfast, by the way, is a Vietnamese EV maker no one knows about.
Four months in the White House have greatly damaged the Tesla brand, but things may change soon. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, announced on his social media site, X, that he is returning to his business ventures. But Musk, like an earlier Henry Ford, has a lot of ground to cover if he wishes to restore the reputation of his company.
Synonymous:
Today, the Tesla brand and Elon Musk are synonymous. In earlier times, so was the name of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. This is not the first time that a motor company has stalled, or at least stumbled, because of its leader’s outspoken political stance. But it will just be the first time for an electric vehicle firm. Ironically, it was Henry Ford’s cheap, mass produced gasoline powered Model T that was the death knoll for electric cars, circa 1912. But today’s electric Tesla shares a lineage back to the Model T. We review from the Model T to the Tesla: damaged reputations
In the 1920s Henry Ford was super wealthy, venerated for building the people’s car, and a scion for American innovation and technology. Elon Musk has followed in this tradition. Ford was also a political influence, what we call a “thought leader” today. Tragically, he used his position to demonize the Jewish people and spew anti-semitism. Among his many hateful diatribes were that the Jews were the cause of World War I and through their media connections now manipulating a future economic takeover.
X Marks the News:
Henry Ford, like Elon Musk who owns “X” today, revered the power of the media and used it to his advantage. Ford bought his hometown newspaperX called the Dearborn Independent and it broadcast his viewpoints and anti-semitic pronouncements. Ford seem to understand how to cultivate public opinion as everyone who bought a model T was automatically subscribed to his paper.
Ford’s anti-semitic diatribe got re-packaged into books and in the late 1920s these books found their way into the hands of the emerging Nazi party. We know that Henry Ford communicated with Adolf Hitler, but later tried to distance himself from that relationship. It’s rumored that Henry Ford helped Hitler with several manufacturing projects. A company called Ford Werke produced trucks and other equipment for the German military.
People’s Cars:
Ford’s other project with the Nazi regime harks back to his earlier genius with automobiles. Hitler wanted a simple, affordable car that would enable German families to travel and enjoy the country’s new road network, the Reichsautobahn. “The People’s Car,” debuted in 1938. Like the Model T, it was intended as a low-priced, high production vehicle to bring mobility to the masses. The Beetle vehicle continued to be built after the war, and was a best seller when introduced to the United States in the 1950s. But extensive marketing was needed to rebrand its Nazi beginnings.
During World War II Ford factories, and other U.S. automakers, shifted from building cars to supplying lucrative government armaments and vehicles. Ford’s controversial opinions reached high-level officials and are said to have helped the company win government contracts. Shortly after the war Henry Ford and his anti-semitic diatribes went to rest.
Repairing:
The parallels between Henry Ford and Elon Musk end here, particularly since Elon Musk has delayed the introduction of a $25,000 People’s Electric Car that would bring EVs to the masses. Still, the Musk thread bears watching in the coming months as he returns his attention to car-making, space launches, and other ventures. Like Ford, can he successfully manipulate his media platform to salvage his name and reinvigorate sales of Tesla vehicles? The stock price has already advanced. But some buyers will decry Teslas, much as religious Jews shun Fords. Perhaps history will be revised if motorists discover safe trip taking in Tesla branded autonomous vehicles.
The bigger picture, the one that is truly important, is not what Tesla does, but what Tesla has done to the electric vehicle industry as a whole. The picture for EV production, versus gasoline cars, is muddled. Since January 2025 EVs have lost three key supports: tax credits, infrastructure build-out, and clean-air mandates. The four months that Musk spent in Washington may have set the EV industry back four years. Or, more like the Henry Ford story, the EV industry and drivers will move on if Tesla pivots to something new.