Electric vehicle giant Tesla (TSLA) is perhaps one of, if not the, most polarizing car brands on Earth today. When people like it, they love it. When they do not, they hate it. And as it turns out, two new studies found that Germany hates Tesla, but Norway feels much differently. And all told, this made Tesla investors pretty happy, as Tesla shares gained nearly 3% in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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The German Economic Institute recently released a survey that made it clear that Tesla was oddly unwelcome in the country. The study found that 60% of respondents declared that buying a Tesla was “completely out of the question.” Another 16% declared they would “probably not” be buying from Tesla. This makes just over three out of four Germans actively hostile to buying a Tesla, though only to one degree or another.
The reason seems to be mainly political in nature, as Elon Musk‘s support for President Trump has colored German perceptions. It got worse from there; the group most likely to buy an electric car in general, the Green Party, was about 64% likely to buy. But 22% noted they already owned one, or a plug-in hybrid. And just 10% could consider buying a Tesla.
But They’re Huge in Norway
Meanwhile, while the Germans seethed over the existence of Tesla, the same could not be said in Norway, where the Tesla Model Y was the country’s best-selling car. Tesla landed a 19.1% market share in the country, and was actually the top brand among all car brands in the country for the fifth year in a row, reports noted.
Users found that the car had plenty of acceleration muscle, and charging the car was quick, easy, and convenient thanks to the Supercharger network. This is a welcome development, and may offer some valuable marketing lessons for Tesla to bring into other countries. Given that the German distaste for Tesla seems mostly political in nature, Tesla could potentially recover with some political moves of its own.
Is Tesla a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 12 Buys, 10 Holds, and seven Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 4.6% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $401.77 per share implies 9.69% downside risk.
