Tesla’s reputation hits new lows as Americans rank it below scandal-plagued UnitedHealth and BP in survey

Tesla is not in the good books of the Americans. At least that's what a latest survey shows. The findings suggest that even companies with big scandals like UnitedHealth, BP, and Volkswagen are seen as better than Tesla. Tesla is ranked 95th out of 100 in the reputation list of well-known companies, according to the reports.

Just a few years ago, in 2021, Tesla was ranked 8th, which is very high. People started to think worse of Tesla after Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and got involved in U.S. politics. In this survey, people rated companies on nine categories like ethics, trust, character, etc. Tesla got bad scores in almost all, as per the report by Axios.

Tesla scored, 98th in Trust and Ethics, 99th in Citizenship and Last 100th in Character. The only place Tesla didn’t do horribly was in products and services, according to the Harris Poll reported by Axios.

Elon Musk’s other companies also didn’t do great like the SpaceX was ranked 86th X was 98th. Experts think Elon Musk is hurting his company's image, as per the report by Fortune. CNN’s data expert Harry Enten said Musk became “political kryptonite” because of how people now dislike him.

Musk made a lot of controversial political comments, like calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme", criticizing judges and the legal system, and threatening to hurt Republicans who don’t support Donald Trump, as per Fortune report.

Musk also supported far-right political people in Europe, like the AfD party and Tommy Robinson. At Trump’s inauguration, Musk made a stiff-arm salute that people compared to 1930s fascists. He later said it was just a common hand gesture, reports.

Among Musk’s companies, Tesla’s fall in reputation was much worse than SpaceX or X. This might be because Tesla’s cars look outdated, since most models are 5 to 12 years old. The only new car is the Cybertruck, but many people don’t like it, says reports.

Cybertruck is already losing sales to the Ford F-150 Lightning. Tesla didn’t reply to Fortune when asked for comment.

Musk says the drop in sales is not his fault. He blames the economy and updates to Model Y. The Axios Harris Poll has been used since 1999. It asks people which big companies they like or dislike most. The latest survey took place from January 22 to May 16, 2025.

FAQs

Q1. Why are people upset with Tesla now?
Many dislike Elon Musk’s political behavior and feel Tesla has lost its good image.

Q2. Why do people not like Tesla now?
Because they don’t like what Elon Musk says and does.