The Musk effect is finally palpable in Germany - just not what the US billionaire was hoping for.

Taxi drivers around Germany are reporting growing resistance among customers to accept a trip in a Tesla, the electric car brand owned by Mr Musk. Meanwhile surveys indicate that Tesla sales and brand loyalty are in the toilet since Mr Musk endorsed Donald Trump and refused to deny giving a Nazi salute at a presidential inauguration event.

Mr Musk responded on his social media platform, X, to criticism of the gesture by saying “The legacy media is pure propaganda”, “they need better dirty tricks” and “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired”. He also said he would consider sueing Minnesota governor Tim Walz for accusing him of doing Nazi salutes.

The tech billionaire’s backing of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of last month’s federal election - as “the only party that can save Germany” - was the final straw for some Germans.

His endorsement gave the AfD no noticeable bump in polls, but appears to have blown back on his car company - which has its only European factory on the southeast outskirts of Berlin.

Many Teslas in the capital now carry apologetic bumper stickers with variants of “I bought this before...”, while police reported last week that four Teslas were set alight in one night in a middle-class Berlin suburb.

A representative market research survey indicates a dramatic plunge in Tesla’s German fortunes. In August, 31 per cent of Germans said they were considering a Tesla as their next car. After the inauguration of Mr Trump and Musk salute controversy, that dropped to 16 per cent. A separate, non-representative online survey by T-Online news portal found that 94 per cent would no longer buy a Tesla while 3 per cent said they would.

Signs of a Tesla slump are also visible in German car registrations: down 76 per cent in February to just 1,429. The monthly figures appear to be part of a wider trend that has accompanied Mr Musk’s move into politics: Tesla sales dropped by 41 per cent in Germany last year compared to 2023 despite a total rise in EV sales by 27 per cent in the same period.

GRUENHEIDE, GERMANY - MARCH 22: (Alternate crop of #1239417601) Tesla CEO Elon Musk contemplates during the official opening of the new Tesla electric car manufacturing plant on March 22, 2022 near Gruenheide, Germany. The new plant, officially called the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, is producing the Model Y as well as electric car batteries. (Photo by Christian Marquardt - Pool/Getty Images)

Some car analysts attribute at least part of the sales slump to a changeover from the best-selling original Model Y to a newer version this month, prompting some customers to wait for the newer vehicle.

Either way, it seems Mr Musk has noticed the effects of his politics in Germany. After a US news portal reported the ongoing T-Mobile poll, the German outlet noticed a dramatic increase in voting from just two IP addresses in the US. It assumes that at least 253,000 “voters” in the survey were two Tesla/Musk controlled bots, creating a more positive final result for Mr Musk to share on X.

Not even manipulated polls can hide the damage spreading beyond Tesla sales. German taxi drivers of Teslas are expressing buyers' remorse as customers boycott their cars because of the company owner.

“I bought my Tesla because I wanted a cleaner car and everything was super at the start,” Manfred Bley, a Hamburg Tesla-taxi driver told the tabloid Bild. “But the situation has changed since Elon Musk is playing around with Donald Trump.”

Taxi associations contacted by The Irish Times reported anecdotal evidence of customer pushback against the Tesla brand, but as yet no clear picture.

The situation has developed enough momentum, however, that Germany’s federal taxi association says it is “taking the Tesla image problem seriously”.

Thousands of members switched from traditional Mercedes models to the US-owned electric car but fear a wider boycott could endanger their livelihoods

Taxi association head Michael Oppermann appealed to customers to be considerate with its members, telling Bild: “Musk didn’t ask the drivers which politics he should follow, but now it’s the drivers being squeezed.”