One in six Germans has already stopped buying American. That’s not a protest slogan. It’s a data point, and it stings. According to a study by the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), 17% of German consumers have recently stopped using American products and services as a direct response to Donald Trump’s presidency. Another 19% said they’ve been actively shopping around for European alternatives. Meanwhile, 27% shrugged and said they’ll keep buying American just like before.
The survey polled 1,006 men and women between 18 and 74, conducted from January 29 to February 2, well before the current geopolitical temperature hit full boil. The institute considers it representative of the German-speaking resident population in that age bracket.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Not all American brands are created equal in the eyes of a resentful European consumer. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta? Practically untouchable. Turns out it’s hard to boycott the infrastructure of your entire digital life. Big surprise. McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and American fashion brands, on the other hand, are considered highly replaceable. Which says something either about European culinary pride or the quality of the McFlurry. Probably both.
Then there’s Tesla. Tesla is the glaring exception in this story. Unlike the tech giants that have consumers locked in digital dependency, Tesla is widely seen as easily replaceable. And the share of Germans actively planning to avoid the brand is dramatically higher than for any other American name on the list. The culprit isn’t the product. It’s the CEO.
Ever since Elon Musk decided that running an electric car company wasn’t enough and signed up as Trump’s most enthusiastic cheerleader, Tesla’s German sales have cratered with almost poetic consistency. New registrations dropped from roughly 63,700 in 2023 to around 37,600 in 2024, and then fell again to just 19,390 last year.
NIM’s Director of Studies Katharina Gangl put it diplomatically. The policies of the American government are negatively impacting the perception of US brands, though it’s not yet enough to trigger a full-scale boycott movement. True. But when your brand becomes the poster child for political backlash, you’ve got a problem that no software update can fix.
