The electric car brand was once a liberal favourite – but the CEO’s embrace of Trump has led to an angry backlash

Summary

Elon Musk’s vocal support for Donald Trump and promotion of far-right conspiracy theories has alienated many Tesla owners, who now express embarrassment over their cars.

Sales of anti-Musk stickers, such as “Anti Elon Tesla Club,” have surged as owners distance themselves from Musk’s politics.

Once admired by liberals for his environmental advocacy, Musk’s alignment with Trump and leadership in his administration have sparked backlash.

While Tesla remains the dominant EV maker, analysts warn Musk’s polarizing image may impact sales as competition grows and Trump plans to cut EV tax incentives.

  • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    23 days ago

    Fuck Musk, but the model 3 launched at like $35k and was eligible for a sizeable rebate. If you were already looking to buy a similar sized new car in 2019, it was relatively competitive. I don’t remember what the rebate amount was, but I’m sure it took at least $5k off.

    The issue is that instead of continuing that trend of basically replacing the Honda Civic, he built a fugly, terrible, overpriced truck whose existence could only ever be excused by its concept being a make-a-wish request from a now-dead six year old. Alas, there are no dead six year olds to blame for that monstrosity. We should’ve had a reliable and affordable EV accessible to nearly every working family in the country. We should’ve had a whole damn fleet of EV freight trucks, possibly with some autonomous driving, at least across long interstate roads where they would just need to keep pace, stay in lane, and not crash. Instead we got a newer, dumber, more dangerous Hummer.

    Again, fuck Musk. He could’ve been okay, but he chose to be awful instead.

    • ArtieShaw@fedia.io
      12·
      23 days ago

      existence could only ever be excused by its concept being a make-a-wish request from a now-dead six year old. Alas, there are no dead six year olds to blame for that monstrosity.

      Brutal but accurate

    • metaStatic@kbin.earth
      10·
      23 days ago

      I believe he was always awful he was just bad at showing it, the balding man child with no public speaking skills was kinda relateable.

      Unfortunately his core audience didn’t get the hairplugs and cocaine nose jobs required to keep him relateable.

      • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        22 days ago

        Yeah, you’re probably right. I never thought “good” was on the table for him, but if he had used his wealth to get enough good things done for everybody, I could’ve overlooked a few things and thought of him as “okay”.

        • metaStatic@kbin.earth
          6·
          22 days ago

          I honestly don’t think he ever tried to hide it, just ask his employees from the time.

          He was simply terribly awkward in public and people mistook him for a normal guy.