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Dennis Levitt got his first Tesla, a blue Model S, in 2013, and loved it. It was so much better than any car Ive ever driven, the 73-year-old self-storage company executive says.

He bought into the brand as well as Elon Musk, Tesla Inc.s charismatic chief executive officer, purchasing another Model S the following year and driving the first one across the country. In 2016, hestood in lineat a showroom near his suburban Los Angeles home to be one of the first to order two Model 3sone for himself, the other for his wife.

I was a total Musk fanboy, Levitt says.

Was, because while Levitt still loves his Teslas, hes soured on Musk. Over time, his public statements have really come to bother me, Levitt said, citing the CEOsspatswith U.S. President Joe Biden, among others. He acts like a 7-year-old.

Before it was reported Muskhad an affairwith Sergey Brins wife, which hesdenied; before hisslipshoddeal, thenno-deal, to acquire Twitter Inc.; before the revelation hefathered twinswith an executive at his brain-interface startupNeuralink; before SpaceXfired employeeswho called him a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment; before his daughterchanged her nameand legal gender after his history of mocking pronouns; before an article said SpaceXpaid an employee $250,000 to settle a claim hesexually harassedher, allegations hes calleduntrue; Musks behavior was putting off prospective customers and perturbing some Tesla owners.

The trends have shown up in one consumer survey and market research report after another: Tesla commands highbrand awareness,consideration andloyalty, and customers are mostlydelightedby its cars. Musks antics, on the other hand? They could do without.

Creative Strategies, a California-based customer-experience measurer, mentioned owner frustration with Musk in astudyit published in April. A year earlier, research firm Escalent found Musk was themost negative aspectof the Tesla brand among electric-vehicle owners surveyed.

We hear from Tesla owners who will say, Look, I love my vehicle, but I really wish I didnt have to respond to my friends and family about his latest tweet, says Mike Dovorany, who spoke with thousandsof EV owners and potential buyers during his two years working inEscalents automotive and mobility group.

Tesla has so far had no trouble growing its way through Musks many controversies. Thedipin vehicle deliveries the company reported last quarter was its first sequential decline since early 2020 and largely had to do with Covid lockdowns in Shanghai forcingits most productive factory to shut for weeks. Competitors that have been chasing the company for a decade may still beyears away from catching up in the EV sales ranks.

Musks star power, built in no small part by his activity on Twitterthe same forum where hes become such a lightning rodhas contributed immensely to Tesla, especially since itsshunnedtraditional advertising. His steady stream of online banter, punctuated with the occasional grandiose announcement or stunt (see:shooting a Roadster into space) keeps Tesla inthe headlines. During the companys earlierdays, the trolling and glib comments were a feature, not a bug. They allowed Musk to shape mediacoverage and made him the ringleader for Teslas legionof very-online fans.

But after making Tesla and himself so synonymous with one another, Musk has waded intopolitical conflicts, attempted to buy one of the worlds most influential social media platforms and struggled to batback unflattering coverage of his personal life, putting the companysincreasingly valuable brandat risk.

Jerry James Stone, a 48-year-old chef in Sacramento, California, who teaches his 219,000YouTube channelsubscribers how to make vegan and vegetarian meals, drives a Volkswagen Beetle convertible, and plans to go electric with his next car. He isnt sure yet which model, but certainit wont be a Tesla.

Elon has just soiled that brand for me so much that I dont even think I would take one if I won one, Stone says. You have this guy whos the richest dude in the world, who has this huge megaphone, and he uses it tocall somebody a pedophilewhos not, or tofat-shame people, all these things that are just kind of gross.

According to Strategic Vision, a US research firm that consults auto companies, some 39% of car buyers say they wouldnt consider a Tesla. Thats not necessarily out of the ordinaryalmost half of respondents say they wont consider German luxury brands. But Tesla does lag more mass-market brands:Toyota, for example, is only off the shopping list for 23% of drivers.

Emma Sirr, a 28-year-old worker in cloud computing who lives in Bozeman, Montana, gets around with her partner and their two dogs in a 2004 Nissan Frontier. Theyve been researching EVs for about three years anduntil recentlyconsidered Teslas the only viable option, given their range and thecharging infrastructurethe company has built in their area. But they refused to buy one because of Musk, their main gripes beinghis politics,staff turnoverat the company, and itscavalier approachto autonomous-driving technology.

We took Tesla off the table from the get-go, Sirr says. She and her partner have their eyes on the Kia Niro and Chevrolet Bolt as possible alternatives. As consumers, our power is what we buy. I think younger generations in particular vote with their wallets, and I feel like that might come back to bite.

For much of the past decade, Tesla lacked competitors that matched its models battery range and other measures of performance. Consumers put off by Musks mischief had few EVs to turn to. As legacy automakers introducemore capable electric models,Tesla wont have as much leeway.

Weve seen among the early adopters more of a willingness to take risks or to put up with things that are out of the ordinary, says Dovorany, who left Escalent for an automotive techstartup earlier this year. Were not seeing that as much with incoming buyers.To win this cohort, automakers need to check every box,andfor some, that includes employing a CEO who doesntshare Hilter memeson social media.

Levitt, the self-described former Musk fanboy, took a test ride last month in a Lucid. He wasnt sold on it, partly he says because it didnt have enough cargo space for his golf gear. Hes still waiting for another automaker to steal him away from Tesla and consideringmodels from Audi, Mercedes, and BMW.

If you take Mr. Musk and his antics out of the equation, Im about 98% certain that my next car would be a Tesla, Levitt says.His antics put me in play.

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Elon Musks antics turn owners and would-be buyers against Tesla: I love my vehicle, but I really wish I didnt have to respond to my friends and family...