Verdict: Misleading
This one is a real statistic wearing a trench coat.
This one is a real statistic wearing a trench coat. The viral claim -- "51% of Tesla owners switch back to gas" -- comes from Edmunds trade-in data that only counts Teslas traded in at franchise dealerships. Tesla doesn't have franchise dealerships, so that dataset structurally excludes the most common outcome: a Tesla owner going back to Tesla for another one. Registration data that sees the whole market (S&P Global Mobility) tells the real story: roughly 70% of Tesla households that move on from a Tesla buy another Tesla, and a majority of EV households -- about 59% in 2025 -- stay electric. That loyalty number has genuinely softened since the federal credits died (it was closer to 68% in 2023), and yes, some owners do go back to gas. But it's a minority outcome, and owner-intent surveys agree: J.D. Power's 2026 study found 96% of EV owners would consider another EV. "More than half are switching back" isn't a trend -- it's a misread spreadsheet.
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