The German pharmacy chain Rossmann is little known in the UK but has over 62,000 employees and more than 4,700 branches across Europe. At the moment it is using Teslas as company cars, but after Elon Musk financed Donald Trump's election campaign for the US presidency it announced that it will no longer buy any more cars from the brand.
For future orders of environmentally friendly vehicles, Rossmann will turn to other car manufacturers.
A 180-car order gone up in smoke
According to a company spokesman, Rossmann currently has 34 Teslas in its company fleet of 800 vehicles and buys around 180 of them each year. Not bad then to win this contract.
However Raoul Rossmann, son of the company's billionaire founder (Dirk Rossmann), was clear: 'Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax. This attitude is in stark contrast to Tesla's mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars'.
This decision, the note says, 'is based on the incompatibility between the statements of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the values Tesla represents with its products'.
They are not alone
However, Rossmann is not the only company that has decided to turn its back on Elon Musk (although not for ideological reasons). The German software giant SAP announced earlier this year that it would stop offering Tesla to its employees because of 'rock-bottom' prices.
The car rental company Sixt also said it would phase out Teslas from its fleet for similar reasons.
Read also:
