Tesla Motors scored higher in the trajectory and vision categories, but lower in character, trust, and citizenship on the 2023 Axios Harris Poll.
Aly Song/Reuters
Some of the shine has come off Tesla's reputation in the minds of US consumers, according to a new survey ranking of the US's most reputable brands.
The electric vehicle manufacturer headed by Elon Musk fell 50 spots to No. 62 out of 100 companies on the list, putting it in the "good" category, according to the score guide. Tesla received "excellent" scores in the trajectory, vision, and products and services categories — and a "very good" score in growth.
The automaker's dip comes as competitor Ford Motor jumped nine spots to land at No. 32. Meanwhile, more broadly, respondents to the survey chose Patagonia and Costco as the US's No. 1 and No. 2 most reputable brands. They looked more negatively upon another one of Musk's companies, giving Twitter a ranking of No. 97 — just three spots above the survey's laggard, The Trump Organization.
As for Tesla, it earned "fair" scores for character, trust, and citizenship. Since 2016, Tesla's reputational rank has trended between "excellent" and "very good," according to the survey results.
The Axios Harris Poll 100 surveyed 16,310 "nationally representative" Americans from March 13 to 28. The process starts by "surveying the public's top-of-mind awareness of companies that either excel or falter in society."
Survey respondents are asked which two companies, in their opinion, currently stand out with the best reputation and which two have the worst reputation. The answers are compiled to determine which companies have the most visibility. The top 100 companies were rated on nine dimensions, including character, trajectory, and trust.
Most of the attention on Tesla's CEO Musk has been focused on his leadership of Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion last October — and it has concerned some of Tesla's investors who think Musk is too distracted and overcommitted to his other companies.
In an open letter sent in April to Tesla's chairwoman Robyn Denholm and director Ira Ehrenpreis, 17 of Tesla's shareholders said, "The Board allowed the CEO to be overcommitted at a time when the company faces critical challenges. Corporate boards can and should intervene if a chief executive appears to be distracted or overly focused on other ventures."
Tesla has faced multiple issues recently, including a lawsuit from a California regulator over allegations that its Fremont Factory is a "racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against." The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing told The Wall Street Journal it received "hundreds of complaints from workers."
Neither Tesla nor Musk responded to Insider's request for comment.
The EV company has also faced criticism from customers who were upset about the company slashing prices for some of its models, saying they felt "cheated," and "taken advantage of." Earlier this year, Tesla had to recall over 362,000 of its cars due to an issue with its Full Self-Driving software that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said "increases the risk of a crash" and could cause the car to "act unsafe around intersections."
The top ranked automotive company on the Axios Harris Poll 100 was Toyota, ranking sixth among all 100 most visible brands. Honda, Subaru, BMW, Ford, General Motors, and Volkswagen all ranked above Tesla, and Chrysler ranked last among all automotive companies, coming in at No. 67.
