Tesla Acknowledges Awareness Issue In EV Adoption, But Won't Overspend On Advertising - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

A Tesla Inc TSLA company representative on Wednesday acknowledged lack of awareness as an issue impacting EV adoption but noted that the company will not be spending too much on advertising.

What Happened: Tesla ran a series of digital campaigns in the fourth quarter focussed on its products and EV safety. A particular awareness campaign had about 10 million unique viewers and generated significant visits to the company website, a company representative said.

However, despite the success of its ad campaigns, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja said that the company will be ‘very careful’ to not overspend on advertising. “Because we understand the importance of increasing awareness, but at the same token, we don’t want to spend a lot of money on just creating awareness,” Taneja said.

Company CEO Elon Musk chipped into the conversation to note that there are certain geographies such as Japan where the company has a low market share and the company needs to put up superchargers and service centers while also ensuring that the product works well.

“…we definitely need to increase awareness in countries and regions where there is, yeah, not that much awareness,” the CEO said.

Why It Matters: Tesla had previously stayed away from traditional advertising with the CEO noting the high price of EVs as the key factor to work on to increase sales. However, in the first half of 2023, Musk said that he was open to trying some advertising following requests from shareholders, enthusiasts, and analysts.

"I share your sort of larger point, which is that there are amazing features and functionality about Teslas that people just don't know about," Musk said in May. "I believe in taking suggestions, so, well, we'll try a little advertising and see how it goes."

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