(Bloomberg) -- The German drugstore chain Dirk Rossmann GmbH will no longer purchase Tesla Inc. vehicles for its fleet, citing Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump.
Rossmann, which has more than 62,000 employees and over 4,700 branches across Europe, announced the decision in a statement Tuesday. The closely held company said that while it will continue to use Teslas already in its fleet for sustainability purposes, it will turn to other manufacturers and models for future vehicle orders.
“Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax,” Raoul Rossmann, the son of the company’s billionaire founder Dirk Rossmann, said in the statement. “This attitude is in stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars.”
Tesla’s chief executive officer endorsed Trump last month on X, the social media service he owns, minutes after the former president survived an assassination attempt. Musk later confirmed that he was donating to a super political action committee supporting the Republican nominee.
Rossmann currently owns 34 Teslas within its company-car fleet of 800 vehicles, according to a spokesperson. The company buys roughly 180 new cars a year.
Germany’s SAP SE announced earlier this year that it would stop offering Teslas to its employees, citing fluctuating prices that complicated the software company’s fleet management. Car-rental firm Sixt SE said months earlier that it was phasing Teslas out of its fleet for similar reasons.
(Updates with size of the fleet in the fifth paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
