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Tesla fell to 95th place in the 2025 Axios Harris Poll 100, a steep drop from eighth in 2021 and 63rd in 2024. SpaceX and X also faced weak reputation scores, but the results measure public perception—not company performance—and the consequences differ for a carmaker, an aerospace provider and a social network.
Where Musk-linked companies ranked in 2025
The Axios Harris Poll 100 ranks the 100 companies Americans consider most visible. In its 2025 results, Tesla landed near the bottom, while Axios reported reputation-score declines for SpaceX and poor scores for X, formerly Twitter. The available figures do not establish comparable overall rank histories for all three companies.
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| Company | 2025 result | Other reported context |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla | 95th of 100 in the 2025 survey | 8th in 2021 and 63rd in 2024; Toyota ranked 4th and Ford 60th in 2025. Axios said Tesla ranked last on character and near the bottom on ethics and citizenship. Axios |
| SpaceX | Axios reported a reputation-score decline; a comparable overall rank is not stated in the cited report. | Republican-Democratic perception gap: 28.7 points. It is less consumer-facing than Tesla. Axios |
| X | Axios described its score as poor and its ranking position as persistently weak; a comparable overall rank is not stated in the cited report. | Republican-Democratic perception gap: 29.5 points. Axios |
The table’s partisan gaps are reported differences in perceptions, not percentages of people who approve or disapprove. Axios reported a 32.3-point Republican-Democratic perception gap for Tesla, 29.5 points for X and 28.7 points for SpaceX. Axios
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Why Tesla’s reputation fell
The poll documents a sharp decline, but it does not establish a single cause. Axios described Tesla’s reputation drop alongside growing political polarization and Musk’s alignment with President Trump. The poll is observational: it cannot prove that Musk’s politics, any one controversy or another factor caused Tesla’s movement from 63rd in 2024 to 95th in 2025.
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The dimension scores offer a more specific view of how respondents judged the company. Tesla ranked last on character and near the bottom on ethics and citizenship, according to Axios. Those assessments point to reputational weakness in perceived conduct and social responsibility, rather than a direct measurement of vehicle reliability, sales or profitability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the Axios Harris Poll 100 is calculated
The ranking is produced through three survey steps. An awareness survey identifies the 100 companies most visible to Americans; a second wave measures familiarity; then respondents familiar with a company rate it across reputation dimensions used to calculate its Reputational Quotient (RQ). Harris says the framework has been used since 1999. The 2025 methodology reports sampling precision within ±2.5 percentage points for each wave at a 95% confidence level. Harris Poll methodology
That precision statement describes the survey waves; it does not mean an individual company’s rank is guaranteed to fall within a two-and-a-half-place margin. Rankings are relative positions among the companies included, while the RQ is a perception measure.
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A poor reputation score does not by itself show that a company is failing. The survey does not directly measure sales, profits, product quality or procurement performance. Axios reported Tesla’s reputation decline in the context of political polarization. Separately, Futurism reported that Tesla sales fell 37% in Europe and 9% in the United States in the first quarter of 2025, while net income fell 71%. Those operating figures provide business context; they are not findings from the Harris survey. Futurism
Reputation can still matter commercially, but the exposure varies by business model:
- Tesla sells directly to consumers, so public sentiment may be more immediately relevant to buyer interest and brand choice. The ranking alone cannot quantify that effect.
- SpaceX is primarily an aerospace contractor and launch provider, making it less consumer-facing than Tesla. A change in public perception may therefore have different commercial implications.
- X is a social platform. Its reputation concerns a service and its public standing, rather than the purchase of a vehicle or launch contract.
The shared survey framework makes the companies’ reputation scores useful to compare as perceptions, but not as a common measure of their operating health or business risk.
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