Tesla has ranked last place in a survey of brand reputation in Europe’s largest car market Germany, with a massive year-over-year collapse leaving it behind several other companies with already-poor reputations. It ranked poorly in Nordic countries as well.
The “Reputation&Trust 2025” study, by Finnish company Reputation and Trust Analytics, ranks Tesla in absolute last place out of 30 surveyed companies in Germany, with a reputation score of 2.48 on a scale of 1 to 5. Any score under 2.5 is considered “very bad.”
The survey ranks companies based on eight separate factors, including governance, financial performance, leadership, innovation, dialogue, products & services, workplace, and responsibility.
In the yearly survey, brands tend to shift reputation some amount from year to year, but usually don’t change that much – changing perhaps a tenth of a point or less.
But Tesla’s reputation tanked year-over-year, dropping by a whopping -0.77 points. This put it from a middle-of-the-pack 3.25 score to its pack-trailing 2.48 for this year.
Tesla did worse than other companies with bad reputations
The score compares unfavorably to some companies with already-poor reputations. It’s behind the entire pack, but when looking at companies that rank better than Tesla, the drop is even more remarkable.
For example, Chinese online shopping company Temu, which has such a reputation for poor quality that its name has become shorthand for cheap knockoffs, scored a 2.76 (Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion company, fits in a similar category for low-quality goods, and scored a 2.51). Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national train operator that is known to be among the least-punctual operator in Europe, scored a 2.68.
And Nestlé, the megacorp that is famous for controversies including child labor, slavery, contaminated baby food, deforestation, and illegal water pumping, scored a 2.56.
As for large single-year drops, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, dropped -0.28 points over a year marked by frustration with tech companies, AI and social media, but still managed a score of 2.95. Its -0.28 point drop is significant, but still only about a third as large as Tesla’s -0.77 point drop.
So, Tesla is in exceptional company at the bottom of the list. Not only did it perform worse than a number of companies with bad reputation, it fell more than companies with exceptionally bad years.
In fact, this is the largest reputational collapse ever witnessed by the survey, which has been running in various countries since 2013.
On the eight areas surveyed, Tesla tended to do best in innovation, followed by financial performance and products & services. It fared worst in the areas related to governance, working conditions and corporate responsibility.
Tesla got other bad news in Germany this year – its Model Y was named the least reliable car in a major German reliability survey, a poll said 94% of Germans wouldn’t buy a Tesla, and the company cut 1,700 jobs at its Berlin gigafactory, which makes us wonder if the factory’s days are numbered.
Tesla did poorly in other countries, too
The survey did not only cover Germany, but also the Nordic countries. Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Estonia were all surveyed, and Tesla did poorly in each, though was only last place in Germany. It was third-from-last in Sweden and Denmark, fourth-from-last in Finland, and fifth-from-last in Norway and Estonia (not pictured, but those results are available here).
The eight categories showed similar patterns among each of these countries, with Tesla tending to do well in technology and badly in governance.
Tesla’s reputation has declined significantly in recent years in these countries. For example, in Sweden, Tesla hit a high-water mark of 3.88 in 2021. It dropped to 3.18 by 2023, 2.88 in 2024, and 2.43 in 2025.
While none of these single-year declines were as big as its -0.77 decline in Germany this year, the overall decline in Sweden has been drastic in recent years, as Tesla continues to fight with Sweden’s largest union.
Tesla’s anti-union behavior in Sweden is likely responsible for part of its reputation damage in other countries, as the Nordic countries covered in this survey have strong union reputations. Especially considering it is currently gearing up for a fight with Germany’s largest union.
Tesla’s poor result in this survey mirrors rankings from elsewhere – in May, Tesla ranked below Temu and UnitedHealth in a US brand reputation poll, despite poor reputations for each of those companies.
And its poor reputation has come alongside dropping sales across the region, with Tesla seeing drastic sales declines across Europe.
We have a pretty good idea why this drop is happening
You may have noticed the categories Tesla did worst in – those related to governance and leadership.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has gotten increasingly involved in politics in recent years, both in the US and abroad. This has involved support for German neo-Nazis and agreeing with a defense of Hitler’s actions in the Holocaust, among many other white supremacist statements. His behavior has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and pushed many customers away.
And, of particular interest for the country of Germany and the year 2025, Musk started out the year with two unambiguous nazi salutes on live television in January. Germans are understandably not enthused with that sort of thing.
And so, whereas driving a Tesla previously gave an association with wanting to be more environmentally friendly, it now gives an association with something completely different. Riku Ruokolahti, Reputation and Trust Analytics’ Development Director, explains:
Part of Tesla’s appeal was based on signaling: an individual could communicate being a sustainability pioneer by driving an electric car. When founder Elon Musk’s behavior then appeared irresponsible, it undermined the image that Tesla was the choice of a sustainability pioneer. This is a textbook example of how quickly you can lose a reputation built on one leg.
The backlash against this behavior is not surprising, as it has long been known in the business community that it is good to stay out of politics, especially when those politics clash with the politics of the majority of your customers. But no matter what stance you take, a certain percentage of customers will be turned off by it, and a company should seek the widest customer base it can if it seeks to maximize sales and profits.
So it’s not puzzling why this reputational drop would happen – but it is puzzling why Tesla investors would reward the man who is at best asleep at the wheel, and at worst seems to be near-singlehandedly destroying the company.
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