Why Are Tesla Sales Slipping?

Outside of Musk’s political drama, Tesla is slowly starting to lose its appeal. For years, they’ve basically stuck with the same handful of models and haven’t done much in the way of major updates. Eventually, people are going to get bored and start looking at other brands. And that’s not even counting the Cybertruck mess and all the other weird stuff going on.

As far as I know, most car companies usually give their models a big refresh around the 5-year mark—or maybe 10 years if the car is still selling well. Just look at the Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic. Both brands tend to do a facelift at least every 5 years, and that’s because they know people lose interest if a car stays exactly the same for too long. We’re not living in a totalitarian country—we can pick whatever car we want. And if it’s not exciting or fresh, why bother sticking with it? That's probably what many people are thinking.

What I’ve noticed with the Model 3 is that—even though it got a facelift a while back—Tesla didn’t actually change much. Pretty much the only updates were to the bumper and lights. Everything else is still the same old Model 3, and honestly, people are probably starting to get bored of it.

It’s like this: say you’re a fan of the Toyota Corolla. If Toyota just gave it a minor facelift and kept everything else the same, would you still be into it after a few years? Probably not. Design plays a big role in getting people excited about buying a car.

Same story with the rest of Tesla’s lineup. It feels like they haven’t made many changes—maybe because they don’t have a ton of experience with this kind of thing, or their tooling is limited. Most automakers do a big facelift around year 5 or 10. Tesla doesn’t really do that, and it looks like consumers are noticing. Yeah, the design has technically changed, but it’s not new. It doesn’t feel fresh or visually exciting anymore.

I think Tesla's biggest problem is that their overall design just isn't that attractive. They don't seem to be very creative with it, and it feels like they're offering the same car in different sizes. Need a budget-friendly Tesla? There's the Model 3. Want an SUV? Model X. But they all kind of look the same, and that gets old fast.

Other car companies reuse design elements too, sure—but their design language tends to be more refined or at least better understood. Tesla could definitely take a few notes from them, and that seems like an easy win. They could’ve brought in a design firm like Pininfarina to style a car for them. That’s the kind of move a company like Tesla could easily pull off.

Now, putting aside Musk’s politics—which, yeah, have definitely hurt sales—I really think the main issue is the design. Tesla doesn’t like to make changes, and without a big refresh, people are going to get bored. If that keeps up, customers might start leaning toward other brands that are offering cooler, more eye-catching options. That said, I think Tesla’s aware of this and will eventually start evolving their designs. They probably already know where they messed up and are working on fixing it.

Still, for now, Musk’s political drama and the growing competition from other brands are the biggest issues. If Tesla could step up their design game, I’m sure there’d still be plenty of people who’d buy their cars because most still believe in their product. Everything is slowly going downhill due to mismanagement and Musk’s antics anyway.