How to kill a brand [and widespread faith in the renewable energy sector].                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Professionally, Elon Musk is probably best known across the globe for being an outspoken eco-warrior; the figure-head and CEO of Tesla, an American manufacturer of electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries for cars and home power storage.

Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy and works to achieve this primarily through designing, manufacturing and selling electric vehicles.

Although not a founder of the company, Elon Musk was an early investor and board member of the company - becoming CEO in 2008.

Musk has - if you pardon, or indeed, enjoy! the pun - positively set the world on fire, figuratively of course, with his passion for renewable energy, sustainability and creating clean energy resources for the mainstream; helping to revolutionise and decarbonise the automotive industry.

Musk’s alignment with Trump’s anti-climate change cabinet

In recent months, however, Elon Musk has aligned himself with President Trump’s cabinet; becoming one of Trump’s closest advisors and de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Trump, however, is famously uninterested in renewable, clean and sustainable energies - within days of his reign, for example, Trump quit the Paris Agreement and isolated the USA from global efforts to stem climate change.

Following this, Trump has gone on to gut federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution, and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry - vowing to remove all restraints associated with drilling “liquid gold” i.e. oil.

The impact on Tesla

These widely controversial and retroactive moves from Trump, along with his ever-growing friendship with Musk, has already led to some devastating consequences for Musk; European Tesla sales dropped 40% last month and Musk’s net worth has plummeted by more than $100 billion, or approximately 25% since December 2024.

With this, distrust and dislike for Musk across the internet, traditional media and social media has skyrocketed; one can hardly go a day without seeing a negative headline, article or meme associated with the ‘mistakes’ Musk, and Trump’s cabinet, are making and will continue to make during Trump’s presidential term - where, often where Musk is concerned, Tesla is also mentioned.

How to kill a brand

Understandably, this has all but killed the Tesla brand and, indeed, a lot of Musk’s own credibility; how can a successful entrepreneur so passionate about sustainability be so closely aligned with a President seemingly hell-bent on destroying U.S. climate policy?

What happened to the Maverick so driven by renewable & clean energy he was willing to invest $6.5 million in 2004, in the emerging concept of electric vehicles via the [then] fledgling company, Tesla?

A difficult question to answer, one can only assume that Musk has been swept up in Trump’s other views, policies and promises, and has overlooked or ignored his views on renewable energy and climate policy; only to then go on to suffer the consequences later, both personally and professionally.

Ridicule for the renewable energy sector

With ridicule for Musk and Tesla comes inevitable ridicule of the renewable energy sector - particularly, of course, electric vehicles - and potentially a dying faith in renewable energy sources, as one of the sector’s pioneers has become little more than a joke.

For the average member of the public, who may not know much more of renewable energy than brands such as Tesla, and the growing reliance on wind farms and solar panels, Musk’s steep decline in favour could easily reinforce a negative view of the sector.

A gap in the EV market

Not all is lost for the electric vehicle market specifically, however, as some feel that the discourse surrounding Tesla in recent months has brought a lot of attention to electric vehicles and arguably firmly placed EV’s in the mainstream, where once they may have been on the peripheral; whilst Tesla’s sharp decline has left a considerable gap in the market. A gap a reputable electric vehicle brand could easily fill.

But is all news good news?

Right now, the negativity surrounding Musk is so rife and raw that it’s truly hard to see a way out, a way for Musk and Tesla to break free and win the public back around - especially as the media are now coming for Musk’s ‘private’ life.

But, if navigated carefully, the renewable energy sector and, indeed, electric vehicles specifically, could benefit in some way from this spotlight and the ever increasing gap in the market Tesla is leaving.

Musk’s involvement with Trump may have ‘killed’ the Tesla brand, but the renewable cause can never be ‘killed’.