A growing number of employees believe that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was involved in several businesses before entering politics, has “stepped away” from the automaker as he became President Donald Trump’s “right-hand man,” leading an organization called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

These employees range from low-level to senior managers at the world’s leading electric carmaker Tesla. According to The Washington Post, at a recent staff meeting, some of these managers expressed that the company would be better off if CEO Elon Musk stepped down.

Elon Musk is Tesla’s fourth CEO – Photo: TechSpot

“It seems like Musk has abandoned his own company,” Nell Minow, vice president of business consulting firm ValueEdge Advisors, who donated the majority of her Tesla shares last year, told The Washington Post.

Moreover, many employees are concerned that Musk could permanently damage Tesla’s reputation through his relationship with President Trump and his personal behavior, such as performing the Nazi salute.

“While Musk can get away with a Nazi salute in some parts of the world, European markets are against such behavior. World War II still casts a long shadow,” Tim Kraaijvanger, founder of Dutch Tesla blog Tesla360.nl, told Wired.

Elon Musk’s Nazi salute sparks controversy – Photo: SPLC

These concerns come after a dismal year for Tesla, with falling sales, plunging profits, and stagnant revenue.

Wired notes that CEO Elon Musk’s electric car company’s car sales were particularly bad in Europe, with a 13% drop in the European Union (EU). But nowhere were the numbers more alarming than in Norway, a country where 88.9% of all new cars sold are electric. Notably, Tesla’s sales in the Nordic country were down 37.9% by 2024.

How much of Tesla’s self-destructive reputational damage has been a factor in the decline remains up for debate, but it’s undeniably a big one.

In the US and especially in Europe, there have been various forms of opposition to Musk and Tesla, ranging from public protests to vandalism, the most common of which has been spray-painting anti-Nazi symbols on Tesla cars and company headquarters.

Of course, Tesla’s competitors aren’t complaining. “We’ve had more and more people writing to us and switching to Polestar in recent months,” Michael Lohscheller, CEO of Swedish electric car company Polestar, told Wired .

In short, Tesla employees’ fears that Musk could bankrupt the company are well-founded. And what’s at risk of getting lost in the chaos is that even as Tesla retains its position as the world’s leading automaker, it is losing its identity.

According to The Washington Post, Tesla employees are now starting to question whether Musk still supports the company’s original mission of accelerating “the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

One reason is that the world’s richest billionaire continues to support Trump despite the new US president’s intention to eliminate federal electric vehicle (EV) tax credits, which are supposed to encourage people to ditch gas-guzzling cars for electric ones.

Trump has also issued executive orders to reverse many climate change policies, while declaring a “national emergency” as an excuse to increase fossil fuel production.

All of this is completely at odds with the green image Tesla originally built.

“We invested in the vision that he (Musk) represents, and Tesla’s previous mission of building a sustainable future. I was fooled and that was my fault — but now, he’s doing the same thing to this entire country,” Kevin Smith, a longtime shareholder who recently sold all of his Tesla shares, told The Washington Post.