Left-leaning and centrist Americans at least were similarly horrified, so I don't think it's an issue of understanding in the US. Musk in particular is just dead set on being a right-wing extremist now for whatever reason.
Also note that it's not just Europe where sales have dropped, Tesla EV market share has fallen quite hard in the US as well IIRC.
That reason is his breeder fetish/ideology. By the tabloid press he's paid for IVF gender selection for boys, and Vivian rejecting that, defying her father's wish and coming out as trans is what sent him off on the anti-woke crusade. And that's also why he bought and ruined Twitter - in his view, it was the woke people on there who ruined his "son".
It's all so damn petty, the actions of a man so rich he didn't think someone would ever tell him the word "no" and follow through with it. So much completely unnecessary suffering, all for the pure vanity of a single man.