Here’s an interesting wrinkle as Tesla’s sales plummet worldwide, with European market after European market reporting double-digit sales drops, and the all-important Chinese market showing sudden shakiness.
In the USA, there is a huge demographic imbalance among Tesla buyers: they’re overwhelmingly dudes. What gives?
The Data: 74% of Tesla Buyers are Male
TL;DR: 74% of Tesla buyers are male. That’s a way higher percent than EVs generally (67% male) and licensed drivers in the USA (49% male).
Tesla Buyers by Gender and Median Age in the USA
| Tesla Model | Percent Male | Percent Female | Median Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model S | 73% | 27% | 53 Years Old |
| Model 3 | 84% | 16% | 51 Years Old |
| Model X | 74% | 26% | 45 Years Old |
| Model Y | 73% | 27% | 48 Years Old |
| Cybertruck | 84%* | 16%* | 46 Years Old |
| Overall | 74% | 26% | 48 Years Old |
Compare these numbers to the national average: only 49% of licensed drivers in the USA are male. So men are wildly over-represented among Tesla buyers.
Oh, and we sorted the data not by any rational basis, we just arranged the X-axis to spell “S3XY Cybertruck.” That’s a joke we’re every bit as confident as Elon Musk is will land great with the women-folk.
Data Sources and Methodology
We’re using the latest vehicle ownership database data from Hedges & Company wherever available. Most figures are current through 2025 with a ±2.4% margin of error. Model 3 data is from 2022. See the note below on the Cybertruck, which relies on self-reported data with less rigorous methodology, so it’s excluded from the “overall” row.
*No Great Data for the Cybertruck, but Anecdotally…
There’s no great data for Cybertruck ownership by gender, likely because the limited sales volume doesn’t meet the requirements of Hedges & Company’s randomized sampling methodology. They report on Cybertruck ownership age, but not gender.
But if there’s one thing Cybertruck drivers love, it’s posting online about Cybertrucks. One Cybertruck owner’s club ran a 2025 poll asking members to sound off by gender.
According to one Facebook Cybertruck fan club, 84% of owners were male. And honestly, that might be underestimating the male-ness of that crowd.
The Big Picture: Why Women Aren’t Buying Teslas
We’ve got a hot take and a serious take. As always, the hot take comes first.
Hot Take: The CEO Says Wild Stuff About the Fairer Sex
Of course, it’s hard to talk about Tesla without talking about Elon Musk, and WOW, that guy sounds off in public about women.
Here’s 3 randomly selected highlights from his Twitter feed:
There’s this joke-y proposal for opening the Texas Institute of Technology and Science, which will have “epic merch” with its T.I.T.S. acronym.
Our editors were worried he grew out of that naming convention after the S3XY Cybertruck model lineup, but their fears were quickly put to bed.
Then, there’s this meme, where Twitter was a fat woman before Elon rebranded it, and a conventionally attractive woman after.
It’s a dog-whistle the size of a foghorn… and, some women might not love having their bodies compared to software products.
He also reposted content with the comment that it was “extremely concerning” that 45% of American women are predicted to be single and not raising children. That’s a repost of an account that describes the demographic shift as a sign of “something being broken in our culture.”
We imagine that almost half of American women don’t feel culturally “broken” about their own family decisions, but hey, what do we know?
Of course, that’s just a casual Google search worth of examples, and that’s just the public stuff.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the CEO is also sliding into random women’s DMs to pitch them on motherhood… uh… more directly? Which is certainly one way to shoot your shot!
Serious Section Inside the Silly Section: Only 35% of American Women Rate Elon Musk Favorably in 2025
Now, it’s an open question whether folks care what the CEO says in public.
Not an open question for long, though, because approval ratings for public figures are measured by gender, and Elon’s approval rating really sucks with ladies. Only 35% of American women rate Elon Musk favorably.
Maybe it’s the Twitter shitposting? Maybe it’s the whole “harem drama” thing? Or is it the deeply unpopular association with DOGE?
The cause is unclear and there are many viable explanations, but the end result is easy enough to read in the graphs. The guy is repellent to most women, and if the Tesla ownership data is any indicator, it may be having the opposite of a brand halo effect.
A More Serious Take: EVs Generally Struggle to Find Female Buyers, But Tesla Moreso
To be fair, people don’t buy a CEO from Tesla, they buy a car. So while Elon may be hurting the brand, EVs in general have a gender gap problem.
Tesla’s male buyer share is 74%. That compares to 67% for EV buyers overall, according to Edmunds in 2023. That’s well above the industry average for all automobiles, where only 59% of overall car buyers are male.
Why’s that gender gap so large? The data is pretty confounding.
According to surveys reported by Edmunds, women say that they want vehicles that look exactly like modern EVs: high performance, high fuel-efficiency automobiles with sterling reliability and safety ratings.
American Women Buy Far Fewer EVs… For Now.
Of course, those preferences among female car buyers don’t show through in the EV purchase data! So what gives?
A major spoiling factor appears to be price. Among women who are considering buying an EV, their ideal target budget is far lower than their male EV-considering peers, with the largest female buying segment aiming at a price below $30,000.
So, watch this space! There’s a huge untapped market of female car buyers that is waiting for a vehicle like the one that Tesla just delayed again, that elusive affordable EV.
We’ll see which EV manufacturer breaks through to the female market segment in a big way by appealing to their preferences and bringing the price down to what the buyers are willing to pay.
