Cybertrucks in Boston (Lindsey Nicholson/Getty Images)

Crossed Wires

Tesla is and isn’t America’s top choice for electric vehicles

It’s got the biggest EV market share in the US but few EV buyers say it’s their top choice.

1/17/25 9:46AM

In January, less than 4% of would-be EV buyers said Tesla was their top choice when it comes to automakers — the lowest share on record — according recent survey data provided to Sherwood News from polling firm YouGov. Meanwhile, 21% of EV buyers, and Americans in general, say Toyota is their preferred car brand.

That sentiment puts EV buyers at odds with their recent behavior. Last quarter, 44% of the electric-vehicle sales in the US were Teslas, according to data from Cox Automotive. Tesla, which was the first to market with electric vehicles, has been steadily giving up market share to competitors, but still dominates.

Perhaps the YouGov survey suggests some wishful thinking on behalf of electric-vehicle buyers, whose ideal car differs from what’s available in reality.

Tesla, which suffered its first annual sales decline as a public company last year, has lately been criticized for its aging lineup of vehicles and its decision to postpone offering an affordable EV. Even as electric-vehicle ownership in the US surged more than 7% last year, Tesla sold nearly 40,000 fewer EVs in the US last year than it did in 2023. Meanwhile, companies like Honda Group, GM, Hyundai, Ford, and Toyota, which itself has few pure electric offerings, saw their sales grow.

Perhaps also dragging down Tesla’s sales is its CEO Elon Musk’s behavior. Aligning himself with incoming President Donald Trump, while potentially giving Tesla a leg up in the new administration’s policies (and helping to ramp the company’s stock as well as further enrich Musk personally), has potentially alienated some of the people who would buy Teslas in the first place.

Liberals’ lowest view of Tesla came after Musk purchased Twitter.

Tom Jones

big deal

6/15/26

Lionsgate persists with decade-long effort to make a “Monopoly” movie

America’s favorite board game is proving a tricky subject for a feature film.

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The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

Millie Giles

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Last night’s Tony Awards were a curtain call for a record-smashing season on Broadway

This year’s star-studded theater awards wrapped up the highest-grossing season Broadway’s ever seen.

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SOUND FAMILIAR?

6/5/26

Kids these days are listening to more songs from the good old days

Music nostalgia is in full swing, and the younger listeners of today appear to be partying like it’s pre-1999.

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Drake whiffs on an expected No. 1 on Spotify

Drake started at the bottom and he’s here, but not quite at the top... of Spotify, at least.

It’s been nearly three weeks since Drake dropped his three surprise albums — “Iceman,” “Habibti,” and “Maid of Honour.” Heading into the month, prediction markets were rating it a near certainty, a 98% chance, that Drake’s sonic onslaught was enough to snag the No. 1 slot on Spotify at least once in June.

But, while he surpassed the late Michael Jackson and took up three slots on the Billboard album chart at once, his newly released songs haven’t quite cracked the popular music-streaming platform’s top charts, and market seem to think the moment has passed.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Spotify’s “Top Songs - Global” chart currently show that Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is more than four decades old, Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which climbed back to the top of Spotify charts following his Coachella set in the spring, Olivia Rodrigo’s new angsty love song “The Cure,” and BTS’s “Swim” are all ahead of Drake’s “STFU Janice” from his “Iceman” album.

While Spotify previously reported last month that Drake’s “Make Them Cry” was the most streamed album in a single day this year, that was later revealed to be a data error.

Prediction markets currently show traders are betting there’s only a 15% chance Drake will have a No. 1 song on Spotify in June.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift is in the lead at 98% — a day before the release of her new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote and performed for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming “Toy Story 5” — followed by Olivia Rodrigo, whose highly anticipated album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes out next Friday.