Tesla’s steep fall from California’s green darling to hated target of protests, violence, fires
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They say they’ve been flipped off in traffic, called Nazis and even punched in the face.
Charging stations have been defaced and burned too, and local Tesla dealerships have been picketed, including last weekend in Burbank.
A disgusted Sheryl Crow said she sold her Tesla and donated the money to National Public Radio.
“There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with,” the singer wrote on Instagram. “So long Tesla.”
With Chief Executive Elon Musk playing a prominent role in the Trump administration, many Tesla drivers are no longer happy about supporting the car brand.
Tesla owners in California and beyond have become targets of an unusual form of resistance to the second Trump administration and Telsa owner Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency is slashing federal jobs and stirring controversy.
What is the reason for the sudden Tesla hate?
It’s a strange twist for Tesla, which pioneered electric cars and until recently was considered a crucial company in the effort to reduce carbon emissions and reverse climate change. Teslas are very popular in green California, with its Model 3 and Model Y the bestselling automobiles in recent years.
But Musk’s hard-right turn and his central role in the Trump administration appear to have muddied the brand, especially among some liberal activists who have made it a target. It has not helped that Musk has become a leading critic of California and its liberal policies and moved many of his businesses to Texas.
Elon Musk says he will move two company headquarters out of California. Some call him ungrateful despite getting billions in subsidies for Tesla and SpaceX.
“His vehicles have strong brand association with the CEO, Elon Musk, and his personal brand,” said Billur Akdeniz Talay, a professor of marketing at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire.
(For more on how Tesla owners feel about Musk, check out this earlier Times article).
What kinds of vandalism are occurring?
- Recently, authorities arrested a woman in Loveland, Colo., on suspicion of vandalizing a Tesla dealership with spray paint and Molotov cocktails.
- Tesla chargers were vandalized with swastikas Wednesday in Meyers, Calif., which is near Lake Tahoe. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the incident was under investigation but offered no motives.
Musk made the gestures during a giddy speech celebrating Trump’s return to power at a rally Monday at Capital One Arena in Washington. Many condemn the gestures, but not the ADL.
- Seven charging stations were burned in Littleton, Mass., on Monday, with authorities believing the cause was arson.
- Police in Brookline, Mass., are looking for a man who has been placing anti-Musk stickers on Teslas throughout that city and potentially others. The man was confronted by the driver of a vehicle he had placed a sticker on and said it was “his free speech” that allowed him to act.
A woman named Gillian, whose car was tagged with stickers, told CBS News in Boston that she was taken aback by the actions. “When I started looking around checking my whereabouts of course I was terrified. It just shocked me,” she said. One person in Dallas said she even found Kraft singles on her Tesla.
Demonstrators protest Tesla CEO Elon Musk outside the Pasadena Tesla dealership Saturday.(William Liang / For The Times)
How is Tesla responding?
For its part, Tesla has fought back against vandals by swapping its super charger cables with thicker material while also deploying bank-style ink packs that explode on perpetrators.
Teslas also have a Sentry Mode option, in which the car records happenings with external cameras.
Calls to Tesla dealerships in Loveland, Colo., the site of the alleged vandalism, and to Owings Mills, Md., site of a protest this month, were forwarded to Tesla’s North American headquarters, which did not respond to an email for comment.
Some Tesla owners have distanced themselves from Musk, going as far as rebranding their cars — replacing Tesla logos with those of Honda, Audi and Mazda. Some have even resorted to bumper stickers that read: “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.”
On Sunday, protesters picketed outside a Tesla dealership, holding placards urging people to boycott the brand.
Protester Karen Rabwin told the BBC that she put a “Bought This Car Before We Knew” bumper sticker on her Tesla before eventually trading it in.
Where does this leave Tesla?
Musk is the world’s richest man, his fortune built in part on the wild success of Tesla.
But electric-car sales have slowed across the industry, and that has hit Tesla’s bottom line. Tesla’s stock price has fallen nearly 45% since the election.
In an interview with Fox Business, Musk admitted that he was running his businesses “with great difficulty” but said he expected to stay with DOGE for another year.
Yet, he’s hinted that he isn’t going anywhere or changing direction.
He retweeted a meme with the words “worth it” that showed a heavily bandaged, hospitalized patient in response to another tweet that noted he lost $103 billion in net worth this month.
In 2023, Musk said he had no plans to step down and had no established successor.
They voted for Donald Trump for president, but now they’re losing government jobs. They wonder why Trump and Elon Musk aren’t focusing on real waste and inflation.
But Tesla still has a fan base, right?
Despite all this, Tesla still has a legion of fans.
President Trump, for one, recently branded the protests against Tesla illegal, adding: “I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”
Fans have said they would purchase Teslas or Cybertrucks to support Musk for a variety of reasons, including to “defeat the leftists/Marxists/communist mobs.”
The Cybertruck’s hard-to-ignore design spurred the Irvine Police Department to purchase and debut its $150,000 Cybertruck last fall, complete with $20,000 in upgrades in the form of a light bar, siren, custom graphic and other equipment.
Kyle Oldoerp, the department’s public information officer, believes it is the first law enforcement agency to purchase a Cybertruck. Las Vegas recently announced Cybertruck additions to its fleet.
Three people — Soren Dixon, 19, Jack Nelson, 20, and Krysta Tsukahara, 19 — suffered major burns and blunt force trauma and were pronounced dead at the scene.
There was some initial anger by online commenters who called Irvine’s purchase a “waste of money.”
Yet the vehicle has been “a smash hit” for the department, Oldoerp said.
The truck has been used to support the department’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program aimed at youths.
Although the DARE of yesteryear was focused on drugs, this iteration also talks of bullying, making good decisions and building self-esteem.
He said the DARE program had given away 10,000 Cybertruck stickers, and orders are out for more.
“That’s 10,000 kids our DARE officer is speaking with and getting the word out to,” Oldoerp said.
Oldoerp said he couldn’t imagine the same reaction if the officer arrived to community events in a regular patrol car.
“It’s made an awesome connection with the community, which is exactly what we’re trying to do,” Oldoerp said. “Kids come running up to and mobbing our DARE officer. Everyone wants a picture with the truck.”
Has a car brought this level of political hate before? Remember the Hummer?
The predicament faced by Tesla and its Cybertruck isn’t exactly new.
Two decades ago, there were attacks on Hummers, such as when an environmental activist firebombed a West Covina Hummer dealership in 2003.
About 125 vehicles were damaged or destroyed, with one defendant calling SUV dealers “evil.” The vehicles were also spray-painted with several phrases, including ‘’gross polluter.”
The Irvine Police Department, which unveiled its new Tesla Cybertruck on Tuesday, is one of only two agencies in California that still run a D.A.R.E. anti-substance abuse program.
People routinely smashed Hummers, some with bats, as was the case in 2007 near Washington, D.C.
As the popularity of the vehicles rose, so did detractors, who routinely asked, “Does anyone else hate Hummer owners?
The reason behind the vandalism was less about a personality, however, and more about a lifestyle.
“When Hummer was introduced, it was loved for its rugged military-inspired vehicle designs,” Talay said. “But it was also criticized for being environmentally unfriendly for customer bases.”
The Hummer was notorious for its low fuel efficiency, famously getting around 10 miles per gallon.
Tesla and the Cybertruck have found their critics too, with some blasting the former for crashes and deaths linked to its Autopilot mode and a recent study that said the latter was “more explosive” than the Ford Pinto.
Yet, as of now, neither vehicle has been consumed by flaws.
That was not the case for Hummer. It’s lack of fuel efficiency hampered vehicle sales and led GM to discontinue the Hummer in 2010.
The gas guzzler known for going anywhere was gone.
Yet, there was one final twist for Hummer. General Motors jolted the beast from its hibernation and into a new form — an all-electric sport utility truck — in 2022.
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