USA Today Claims Tesla Has A Problem Appealing To Women - Why We Disagree

A story published in USA Today this week presses the argument that "Tesla has a problem appealing to women." The story leans heavily on "proof by single example" asking individual women, including one female from Indiana who self-describes herself as an "old hippie" who is not ready to buy a Tesla. Before we go much further, is an older "hippie" of either gender likely to be a buyer of a performance vehicle that costs between $50K and $150k? Is a person from a non-ZEV compliance state really the best local resident to ask an opinion on any EV?

Tesla Has 99 Problems
To his credit, the author, Nathan Bomey, has empirical data to back up the premise of the story. He says that registration data show that 31% of Tesla buyers are women. Here is the premise for the story. However, in our opinion, if Tesla does attract fewer female buyers it would only be a "problem" if Tesla had parking lots full of unsold Teslas. It does not. Tesla is struggling with delivery, struggling with keeping its executives from leaving, struggling to be profitable, and engaging in many of the industry's day to day struggles. One thing Tesla has not yet struggled with is buyer demand. It "sells" all of the vehicles it can produce. So, although women are indeed important to any brand's sales, finding people to take the cars home is not a big issue - yet - for Tesla.

Tesla Does Not Actively Seek Buyers
Tesla may one day find that it has a problem related to finding enough female buyers, but it has done very little to engage the public. Also, states like Indiana, which do not participate in EV state rebates and which is not one of the states that follow California's ZEV compliance mandates and goals, is far from Tesla country. No advertisements, zero press vehicles for writers and influencers at female-targeted publications, and a public relations department that ignores information requests from national automotive press outlets is Tesla's present reality. Tesla isn't chasing buyers of either gender right now.

Sources Of Tesla Data
Bomey does ask a few other females for input. One an analyst at Edmunds we hold in high regard. She offered the quote around which Bomey formed his story, saying, “I think Tesla, in general, has a problem appealing to women.”

Edmunds is a respectable vehicle news and sales organization, and Caldwell has two decades of automotive industry experience. Still, we can't agree that having a male-skewed registration balance is a situation that amounts to a problem for Tesla. At this point.

Tesla Trust and Safety Concerns
There is one aspect of the story angle we do not disagree with. Bomey provides subjective examples of women who feel that Tesla's CEO and perhaps its company overall have issues with truth and safety. No Tesla has yet been rated a Top Safety Pick. Those who follow Torque News know that we also highlight Tesla's questionable sales practices (often using EV-advocacy publications as our sources). Tesla also started out as an all-boys club, though the company has since enrolled female board members and executives. To say Tesla may have some image problems is fair.

Tesla Has The Same Male-Female Ratio As Its Peers
We won't offer any gender stereotypes to try to explain away why Tesla's vehicles may be presently purchased by about 70% male buyers. Almost every gender-assumption in the auto industry is wrong. Miata buyers are mostly - fill in the blank - for example. We do recognize that overall more females than males are the purchasers of new vehicles. However, as USA Today's own data show, that is not true of performance luxury brands. In fact, Tesla's male-female ratio of buyers is almost identical to BMW, Audi, Porsche, and Jaguar. All the companies that specialize in performance luxury-priced vehicles. And we don't recall any stories by Bomey at USA Today highlighting these brands' problems with the ladies.

Update: One of our longest-term readers and Tesla owners reminded us that we did a spotlight on female Tesla owners back in 2013. You can read that story, "A surprising look at who buys the Tesla Model S" for a bit more insight on how some female Tesla owners feel.

John Goreham can be followed on Twitter at @johngoreham.