FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German drugstore chain Rossmann said on Tuesday it would no longer buy Tesla cars for its corporate fleet due to CEO Elon Musk’s support for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The drugstore chain, which is among the largest in Europe, said its decision was with immediate effect and due to what it called an “incompatibility” between statements by Musk and the values that Tesla represents.
“Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly called climate change a hoax – this stance is in stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars,” said Raoul Rossmann, the son of Rossmann’s founder.
Musk, Tesla and the Trump campaign had no immediate comment.
Musk’s stance on issues has in the past led companies to drop their advertising on his social media platform X, prompting a fierce rebuke from the billionaire.
Rossmann, with more than 62,000 employees and more than 4,700 stores in Germany and other European countries, said it would continue to use the Teslas it already owns “for reasons of sustainability and resource conservation”.
It did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the size of its corporate fleet, or the number of Teslas it uses. Bloomberg reported that the company has 34 Teslas among its 800 cars.
(Reporting by Tom Sims; Additional reporting by Hyun Joo Jin and Nathan Lane; Editing by Mark Potter)
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