This anti-Musk movement focused on Tesla is so interesting to me. Punishing Musk and driving down value of his company vs. the reality that most Tesla customers who are scared away will probably buy gas cars instead. Competing interests - punish Musk and hurt the environment?
Reposted from
Zack Pizzaz
Just saw someone say the Tesla protests won’t change anything but seeing the police lined up to protect a Tesla store does expose the truth of our situation and…I’m not sure people understand the purpose of protests.
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But literally the one thing not making it a great Amer company again, is the same thing (person) that made it what it is. Insane turn of events.
If people want electric, they can still get electric without supporting a racist who is destroying the US government.
$TSLAQ
ICYMI:
Battery electric #BEV #EV sales go up ⬆️
#Tesla #Swasticars sales go down ⬇️
If they were only buying electric for the brand, what does that say about them?
Same with the Canadians and what they’re doing. A trade war sucks, retaliatory tariffs hurt Canadians too, but sometimes there’s no choice but to fight and to accept that it’s going to hurt, because the alternative sucks even worse.
The cost of the protests is limited to the few people who would only consider a Tesla instead of a gas vehicle.
https://electrek.co/2025/02/03/teslas-sales-drop-double-digits-in-the-us-biggest-ev-market-while-others-are-growing/
Anecdotal, sure, but paints a very different picture than “probably buy gas…”
Besides the path from EV to gas to EV again is more pref than sticking with the EV that kills you.
Elon Musk is a threat to life on earth. You can't save the environment and save him.
I'm reevaluating EVs again (Rivian, VW, Ford so far) and Tesla is still the better EV. Elon's antics disqualifies them from the list of options tho.
& tesla stock is so overvalued it's not even funny
Save the world , buy a Tesla, is WEAK.
And if you’re going to wring your hands over the environmental impact of this, why blame the protestors? Surely musk has free will, no?
If someone wants one because they want an electric car, as opposed to signaling something about their politics, they're not going to have trouble getting one.
Sorry, but hurt Musk.
Other car makers make electric vehicles. Buy a Cadillac if you have to have an ostentatious electric car.
Musk only understands greed and pride, so those have to be specifically a point of effort.
What you should have said: a study from McKenzie indicates 46% of EV owners are switching back to gas/hybrid because of poor EV infrastructure
Unless they deliberately want a Nazimobile at this point...
if you don't stop the nazification of america abruptly and forcefully now, we will have zero environmental regulation, we will blow past all climate targets ON PURPOSE, we will straight-up rip up half our "green energy" infrastructure because the president hates it, &c. &c.
I agree with you on the last point of course.
Hyundai, Ford, Rivian...
Safer? Literally all of them.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62919131/tesla-has-highest-fatal-accident-rate-of-all-auto-brands-study/
That being said, the S and Y performing badly despite being normal-ish cars is a very bad sign. Those aren’t the types of cars normally associated with high risk drivers.
Yes, safer, literally higher than all of them.
I am very intelligent."
We just got a Volvo affiliated Polestar. It feels like magic every time I drive it. Tesla was not in the running.
Reasons!
EVs used to be the domain of Ed Begley granola jokes.
It’s slowly becoming evident Elon is not a hardcore nature boy, but the intersection of “green” and cool tech was a convenient bedfellow for the growth of the market.
But- if the Tesla buyer was only in it for the tech worship, and not the EV market, they probably don’t give a damn about the boycotts and will buy 2 now.
Someone in the middle has options.
I suspect that the people concerned with that message would boycott pretty quickly.
So maybe Musk was a centrist Trojan horse.
Prospective buyers who aren't Tesla owners have trepidation. People who *are* Tesla owners have experienced the vitriol towards the brand. Do they want to continue to deal with that?
the only Tesla selling point imo is the charging network (others likely to improve)
and for a handful of people the personal cult around its 'founder' (who bought himself the title)
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/top-gears-top-20-electric-cars
Tesla’s impact is diminishing for a number of reasons, including Musk’s toxicity.
As far as cars go, we’re enjoying our Ioniq 5. Knobs rule.
The leading EV manufacturer by an ever-lengthening margin is BYD. And while their cars aren't available in the US, the point is that where Tesla was once the only option, now there are many alternatives.
Would've been a precarious moment for Tesla even w/out the Musk angle.
I think it's certainly a matter of people addressing the more immediate issue. But I also think that Tesla's weakening market position genuinely does make it less of a conflict for enviros.
(And I think you're not wrong to note that Tesla's cachet was cultural more than environmental.)
(Lot of people have been hoping anyway that "change nothing except ICE to electric propulsion" would solve our problems)
The EV consumer isn't as brand specific as you think.
Don't try to FUD that not funding the ego of the world's most thoroughly divorced fascist is in some way betraying the planet
2) EVs are not the silver bullet to emissions, and come with their own trade-offs
2) You can accomplish nearly as much on emissions with a good hybrid
Not everyone driven away from Tesla will buy a gas car either; there are good alternatives now.
And just so people know, he’s never really cared about the environment, he just saw an opportunity for a sales pitch.
Elon has been lying the whole time to get those fat govt subsidies…
Killing one EV manufacturer that rich tech bros liked is hardly a death knell for EVs.
Also why wouldn't people just choose one of the several other EV options?
I think a much better question that all involved should ask is "What does complete success, or even partial success, look like?"
You need to quit drinking the koolaid & do some research.
Ain't never owned a Tesla & been EV only since 2019. 300k+ miles logged.
This is the kind of shit people without critical thinking skills think is "smart."
https://bsky.app/profile/thisgrayarea.bsky.social/post/3lk2v4zvlq22t
If climate is a concern of your you should join the Tesla pickets.
Best thing I see outta it is if somehow he’s out of the company, but being the board hasn’t done anything yet, and his brother and longtime pals on it….how does that ever happen
Anytime they sell it sure doesn't make ya think even 1-2 quarters out they expect to go well. Q1/Q2 sales should be ROUGH this year, and with Elon there, maybe not go up after?
I will keep the stock. Hate his politics, love his tech dreams
2. The environmental benefits of personal electric vehicles are wildly overblown, they still massively contribute to environmental damage compared to public transit
3. Musk is dismantling the EPA and other federal environmental safeguards.
Its not 2013. electric cars are everywhere now.
We should focus less on catering the market to that particular guy, and focus more on covering our drinks around that particular guy
These people never cared about emissions, and fundamentally sucking is not our problem.
Modern electric vehicles performance will spoil you for going back to combustion.
The news will of course cover the exceptions because “traded back to gas” is great clickbait
Tesla no longer has a monopoly on EVs.
and the controls actually made sense.