Data released by the U.S. car website Edmunds on Thursday showed that amid the wave of protests against Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Tesla owners are trading in their vehicles for other brands at record levels.

Edmunds' data shows that in the first half of March, 2017 models and newer Tesla vehicles accounted for 1.4% of all trade-in vehicle transactions, up from 0.4% in March last year. Analysts from this car shopping website say that this share may continue to grow in the second half of the month.

In February of this year, the first full month of the Trump administration, Tesla accounted for 1.2% of all trade-in vehicle transactions in the United States.

If this trend continues, Tesla's trade-in share in March will be the highest monthly share recorded by Edmunds.

Edmunds also stated that the number of Tesla's new models purchased on its platform, after peaking in November last year, fell to the lowest level since October 2022 last month.

"Brand loyalty is becoming a bigger question mark as Elon Musk's increasing involvement in public and government affairs, concerns about Tesla depreciation, and the growing saturation of Tesla in major metropolitan areas are causing some long-term owners to feel disconnected from the brand," said Jessica Caldwell, insights executive director at Edmunds.