also affect how people view Teslas. More than a third of drivers (37%) said Musk’s politics and management of X (formerly Twitter) made them less likely to buy a Tesla, while 15% said it made them more likely to buy one, according to a

survey

conducted by

Jerry

in November and December 2023.

We looked at data on drivers of the newest Teslas—model years 2023 and 2024—to see how they might differ from Tesla buyers in the years immediately preceding Musk’s takeover of X. We also compared their

driving-safety scores

, and looked at how Tesla drivers scored overall versus other EV owners and drivers of all vehicle makes.

Here’s what we found:

The percentage of Tesla drivers who are male has grown. Among drivers of 2023-2024 models, 86% are male, versus 82% of drivers of 2020-2022 models.

Overall, 83% of all Tesla drivers in our dataset are male, versus 54% of drivers of non-Tesla vehicles, and 73% of drivers of non-Tesla EVs.

Drivers of the newest Teslas are slightly younger—58% are between the ages of 22 and 34, compared with 53% of drivers of 2020-2022 models. But 2.8% of drivers of the older models are 18-21, versus only 1% of drivers of the newer models.

The newest Tesla drivers are more educated. Roughly half (49%) of all drivers of 2023 and 2024 Teslas in our dataset have a master’s degree, versus 29% of those driving 2020-2022 models. Only 3.5% of the drivers of new Teslas have only a high school diploma, versus 11% of those driving the 2020-2022 models.

Among all Tesla drivers in our dataset, 38% have a master’s degree, versus 21% of non-Tesla drivers and 28% of those who drive other EV brands.

The most common job among Tesla drivers is engineer, accounting for 14% of all Tesla drivers in our dataset. The next most common are operations manager (7%) and software engineer (5.3%).

Engineers account for 18% of drivers of newer Teslas, compared with 10% of drivers of 2020-2022 models.

A slightly higher percentage of drivers of newer Teslas are married. Among those driving 2023 or 2024 models, 39% are married, versus 37% of those in 2020-2022 models.

Drivers of all Teslas and all EVs are more likely to be married than the average driver. Among all Tesla drivers we looked at, 38% are married, compared with 26% of non-Tesla drivers. A third (33%) of non-Tesla EV drivers are married.

The most recent Tesla buyers are less likely to be homeowners. More than one in five (21%) drivers of the newest Tesla models are homeowners, versus 28% of drivers of 2020-2022 models.

Still, nearly a quarter (24%) of all Tesla drivers are homeowners, compared to 13% of other drivers. A quarter (25%) of drivers of non-Tesla EVs are homeowners.

Tesla drivers tend to live in more expensive neighborhoods. The average median household income in zip codes where Tesla drivers live is $87,000, versus $68,000 in zip codes where the non-Tesla drivers live. Nearly a third (31%) of all Tesla drivers live in zip codes where the median household income is $100,000 or more, versus 11% for non-Tesla drivers.

Tesla drivers scored worse than 99.8% of all other drivers in acceleration safety. (Sudden bursts of speed push acceleration scores lower.) Only drivers of Fiats, Maseratis and Porches ranked lower, though their sample sizes were smaller and therefore their results were less reliable.

Tesla drivers received the lowest possible acceleration score (1 out of 5) on 6.1% of their trips. That’s the fifth-worst ranking, behind only drivers of Maseratis (11.5%), Rolls-Royces (11.1%), Alfa Romeos (7.6%) and Porsches (6.9%). (The sample sizes for the worst four were also much smaller in this case.)

Tesla drivers scored slightly higher than non-Tesla drivers in overall safety, speeding, smartphone distraction, turning and braking, but slightly lower than drivers of other EV brands in overall safety, smartphone distraction, speeding and acceleration.

The drivers of the newer Teslas scored slightly better than their predecessors in every category except braking.

Conclusion

Higher percentages of drivers of the newest Teslas are aged 22-34, are male, married, and have advanced degrees than drivers of Teslas built in 2020-2022. The drivers of the newer Teslas also score slightly higher at driving safety.

It’s hard to draw any conclusions about the political leanings of the latest Tesla buyers from the available demographic data. Men are generally

more conservative

than women but Tesla drivers have always been heavily male compared to the general population.

In any case, Tesla still dominates the U.S. market for EVs. Its Model Y and Model 3 ranked first and second in EV sales in 2023, and its Model X ranked ninth, though Tesla (and other EV makers) cut its prices multiple times during the year as EV demand softened. (The price cuts also may have affected the demographic makeup of the newest buyers.)

Still, it seems any damage Musk’s politics and persona might have inflicted on the brand has been limited so far. Tesla sales grew slightly more slowly (38%) than overall EV sales (40%) in 2023, but its market share has been slipping for years as more EV models are released.

Methodology

Jerry compared Tesla drivers of 2023 and 2024 models to those with 2020, 2021, and 2022 models. We also compared all Tesla drivers to drivers of other vehicles and drivers of other EVs from the same years. All drivers are enrolled in our DriveShield™ telematics program. We chose not to look at drivers of older Tesla models because we wanted the data to result from the same market conditions, as much as possible. This is an update of a

study

first published in 2022.

Income data came from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Written By

Henry Hoenig · Data Journalist

Henry Hoenig previously worked as an economics editor for Bloomberg News and a senior news editor for The Wall Street Journal. His data journalism at Jerry has been featured in outlets including CBS News, Yahoo! Finance, FOX Business, Business Insider, Bankrate, The Motley Fool, AutoWeek, and Money.com.

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