• Tesla fell behind Toyota and Mercedes-Benz in “brand value,” a metric calculated by research and consulting firm Brand Finance.
• This metric appears to consider more of Tesla’s real-world performance and less of what the automaker has promised for the future.
• Its recommendation and consideration scores also fell sharply due to a lack of new models and CEO Elon Musk’s culture wars. 

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Tesla’s trillion-dollar stock market valuation may feel like a badge of honor for fans and investors. Still, that figure is more a reflection of its artificial intelligence and robotics ambitions. A different metric tells a far less glamorous story.

The automaker’s brand value has nosedived for consecutive years, falling to $43 billion at the start of this year compared to $58.3 billion a year ago, CNBC reported, citing data from research firm Brand Finance.

Toyota remains the most valuable brand in the auto industry at nearly $65 billion, followed by Mercedes-Benz at $53 billion.  

The study attempts to paint a real picture of where Tesla stands relative to the competition. Unlike Tesla’s sky-high stock price fueled by speculative AI dreams, brand value appears to focus more on the performance of its products and services.

The London-based firm analyzed Tesla’s financials, including its revenue, licensing agreements, and margins, among other things, to estimate its brand value.

Photo by: Tesla

It also surveyed 16,000 respondents across the globe, who shared their views about Elon Musk’s company. The firm found that on measures like reputation, consideration and recommendation, Tesla’s scores declined globally. 

Tesla’s consideration score, which determines if people would consider buying a particular brand’s car, dropped from 21% to 15% in Europe. Its recommendation score, which calculates if people might speak favorably of the brand, dropped from 8.2 to 4.3 on a scale of 10. Loyalty, however, remains high in the U.S. at over 90%.

Brand Finance also said Musk’s “antagonism” is hurting Tesla. Musk was President Donald Trump’s largest political donor (and the largest donor to either party in 2024), with $277 million in contributions to his campaign efforts. By supporting Trump, who has started pulling federal support for EVs and charging infrastructure by signing executive orders on his first day in office, Musk has gone against the interests of his own company. 

At the same time, Musk says he believes that ending the incentives—which Tesla has benefitted from in the past and continues to do so—might help the company in the end. The automaker has more margin built into its cars than its rivals. Tesla is also the only automaker in the U.S. that is turning a considerable profit on its EVs, whereas others are losing billions of dollars while scaling up. He has also been fueling culture wars online, peddling conspiracy theories and amplifying misinformation.

But Tesla’s growth story hit a speed bump last year. Tesla is facing burgeoning rivalry from legacy carmakers. Its sales declined for the first time in a decade in 2024, as it faces the heat from a rising General Motors, Ford and the Hyundai Motor Group—all of which witnessed record EV sales in 2024.  

Photo by: InsideEVs

Tesla has not released a new vehicle in years but has promised to launch affordable models this year. The Cybertruck is somewhat new, but it was announced back in 2019 and then faced years of delays due to the pandemic and production challenges. Now, its demand appears to be falling sharply. The Model S and Model X are aging and the volume-sellers, the Model 3 and Model Y, now have some cosmetic and feature upgrades. The upgraded Model Y isn’t available in the U.S. yet. It went on sale in China last week.

The automaker is now more focused on solving autonomy, building up its artificial intelligence capabilities and furthering the technology for humanoid robots. The result of this pivot? Tesla’s passenger car business has now taken a back seat. With Musk now the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), all eyes will be on how he helps the new administration streamline regulations for autonomous vehicles.

With his unexpected anti-climate messaging off late, brand value may not even matter to him nowadays. Still, it may reshape the electrification journey down the line, with stronger rivals increasingly associated with the transition and Tesla being no longer synonymous with EVs.

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