It's even more insidious, because even if you like Tesla, your car may get scratched by people who don't like Tesla.
But yeah, perhaps telling allies in Europe to get fucked, and tell our friends that the US was embracing the idea to economically attack Canada and potentially militarily Denmark, supporting the idea that the US deserves to get a piece of Ukraine together with Russia, weren't probably the smartest moves among millions of other things.
I like Tesla as a product though (except the finish quality), but it's even less likely that FSD will come in Europe now...
And now, more oddly, it is a remotely controlled video and microphone, so even more creepy seeing the personalities of the people behind.
I truly feel that his ideology mandates a separate term. Muskism? Elonism? The latter rolls of the tongue better, but I suppose future historians will lean towards the former.
There is a widespread boycott and a bunch of peaceful protests. There are a few instances of arson and zero instances of terrorism.
I'm tired of right wing media sensationalizing the handful of radicals and ignoring the thousands and million of peaceful people. Just like during George Floyd protests.
it's tough to fight against fascism without the use of violence or a very heavy threat of violence. I think that most major changes in history show this to be true.
barely anyone would even mention a regular protest in front of dealerships.
Interesting. My understanding of what DOGE is doing is getting American debt under control. Trying to save the country from going bankrupt from overspending on programs that do not improve the life of the average citizen. I'm failing to see how that is destroying the American government. Maybe it's just me.
If they want to get American debt under control why did they fire a bunch of people at the IRS such that it's predicted we will see half a trillion in fresh losses to tax cheats this season? https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/22/irs-tax-r...
Federal employees cost less than 5% of the fed budget which is $6000B. So if you lay off 10% of employees you are effectively reducing the budget by like $30B which leaves $5970B left.
Laying off employees will not help federal government debt or budget.
The idea is a sound one. However many see the approach being taken as reckless, lacking in accountability, and based on specious claims (much of what we know of the progress is self-reported by Musk, some of which has been disproven by fact checkers). Moreover, arguments against his actions are often met with straw men arguments about spending reduction instead of addressing his actions specifically.
> what DOGE is doing is getting American debt under control
I'm suprised anyone buys this line. Trump's 2025 GOP budget would increase deficits by $6 trillion [1]. Its end game is to increase tax cuts for the rich.
The cuts DOGE has done are likely to be reversed in costly court battles that will make the single-digit billions [2] Musk may have saved less than the costs of the fights. All of that is before considering the second-order economic effects of e.g. shutting down large sections of our national parks ahead of the summer season [3].
The Executive does not control what money is spent. That is for Congress to decide, no? I think this is described in a document called the Constitution.
American Government ≠ America, and I think a lot of people mix the two.
Some people want what large, vastly-reaching governments provide. They just need to be aware that the people who run the government can change. The power you give to one "side" can be inherited by the other "side". People should always be wary of giving that power away, because you never know who will have it next.
It's about the separation of powers. Law-making, adjudication, and execution should be separate branches so that no one branch gets too much power, as that will lead to dictatorship. When Trump and Musk are ignoring judges' orders and going ahead with their sledgehammering, it sets a dangerous precedent for what the POTUS can get away with.
Ofc there's more to this story than just DOGE too.
And preferably not by a bunch of Silicon Valley chads who call themselves "Big Balls" and who might've been checked for security credentials before taking the job.
If you have a short daily commute, I recommend considering plug-in hybrids.
I got a PHEV Prius Prime in 2020 and I'm delighted with it. The battery has a range of about 20-25 miles, depending on the weather. My daily commute is about 10 miles each way, so I can make it to work and back without needing gas, and I only need to fill the tank three or four times a year. In my case it works out really well: driving an electric vehicle 95% of the time, and never any range anxiety.
I've had a chevy volt since 2014 and it's amazing at this. 30+ mile range gets me all the local travel that I need daily plus the gas range makes roadtrips completely stress free since I can just go get gas.
I'm not a fan of any car company. Especially ones that eschew buttons for a touchscreen. I am however looking forward to see how the new Ramcharger does (RAM 1500 with all-electric drivetrain (145mi) and built-in V6 generator for extended range (690mi)).
Our Kia EV6 (similar platform) has been great, besides its 12V flooded battery once going flat and disabling the vehicle.
The EV6 has a big touchscreen, a touch screen for combined media/climate controls, capacitive buttons for seat heat and steering wheel heat. However, many of the controls are available as physical buttons as well.
The EV6 is the other car I've been thinking about, actually. I'm going to need to test-drive both some weekend we're not busy with the work on the new house.
I really hope other EV brands are picking up the lost sales, rather than demand being displaced back to ICE vehicles. Hating the owners of Tesla stock is one thing, but the owners of oil & gas stocks are far worse.
Protesters views on either "side" do not represent the majority views. I imagine most people who were interested in buying a Tesla, are not interested in being the victims of vandalism, violence, or hate.
I imagine, if the cultural signal is not the issue (which would be weird cars are perhaps the second most signaling purchase someone makes) it’s the resale value.
All teslas have cratered in value a minuscule number of them have been vandalized.
It's also possible that people who were interested in buying a Tesla are not interested in buying a car from a man who will sig heil twice in public. There are actually still a lot of people that find Nazis revolting.
This is a huge change. These kinds of boycotts and protests usually barely impact sales. The Bud Light boycott had a relatively strong impact on sales, resulting in a 26% decrease in in-store sales in the US. The effect on Tesla seems to be way bigger, and it's not limited to only US sales.
Another prominent example of a global boycott is Nike during the 1990s, but despite the widespread coverage, their revenue actually continued to grow.
Boycott is not the same a burning cars. The sales of the car I own are going down in general, but the only way it affects me is that I know the software bug won't be fixed.
It's not, if you realize they started the quarter with almost no inventory (12 days in end of December, which is nothing for an OEM with no dealership).
More importantly, they shut down the production lines for the Y model to convert them to the new 2025 Juniper version. That's 2/3 of their total sales.
You can't sell cars you have no produced, obviously. It's April-May that you have to watch for deliveries, now that they finally started shipping the new Y out of Texas.
Tesla's non-truck vehicles all look the same and the design is dated. They have yet to prove they can do a car redesign successfully to my knowledge. It takes a lot of effort for a car company to redesign and re-tool their factories to produce a quality new version of a vehicle. They had massive problems when initially launching and until proven otherwise they could repeat those problems if/when they do a re-design.
If Musk would step aside as CEO, they do a successful re-design of each model, offer an affordable bare bones EV (200mi range, slow 0-60, FWD), then I think the company would be rock-solid as an investment and sales would go through the roof and they would break past the 5% of total car sales barrier.
Some of your comment is wrong, IMO. Some of it is correct. Last year I would have jumped in to correct your errors. But I've since sold my stock and am considering selling my car.
One of Tesla's greatest assets were its fans. We've been burnt. Let the haters win.
My comment is my opinion, its neither correct or incorrect.
Car designs get dated and need refreshes every few years (my opinion). Tesla has not gone through this cycle that all other car manufacturers go through (fact?) so I think to prove itself it needs to successfully navigate that cycle.
Opinionated, politicized CEOs of consumer products is not a good idea, doesn't matter what party affiliation. Its going to cause issues with the company and the board of directors would be justified in ousting someone like that. There's just not going to be a good outcome with someone like that at the helm.
Almost all automobile manufacturers are valued with P/Es around 4-15. This is true for GM, Ford, Stellantis, VW, BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, SAIC, Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, etc. Why? Because no-one expect them to grow much.
Right now, after losing almost half of its value, Tesla's stock still has a whooping 122 P/E; Tesla is still valued as a growth company while their sales are collapsing in the US, in Europe and in China, and with no other obvious market to compensate. Tesla hasn't launched a new mass market vehicle since March 2019, when Model Y was presented. That's 6 years ago! What other car manufacturer would survive so little innovation for so long? There are no new mass market vehicles in sight, just some robot taxis and robots and dreams of somehow generating a trillion dollar market on that in the very urban markets in the US and Europe where politicians and consumers despise Musk. Good luck with that. Already in 2024 - long before Musk went full throttle MAGA - Tesla stopped growing.
By now, European and Asian competitors have caught up with Tesla. Yes, Tesla is among the best on some measures, like price and range, but notby much, and it's also far down on the list on other aspects; the market is saturated with its 2 main models, it's not very luxorious, it's not of very good quality, etc. It's one good choice out of many good choices. The growth is gone, the moat is gone, and the Musk brand is now a liability.
Readit News
So now people are boycotting Tesla for destroying American government and promoting fascism in Europe.
But yeah, perhaps telling allies in Europe to get fucked, and tell our friends that the US was embracing the idea to economically attack Canada and potentially militarily Denmark, supporting the idea that the US deserves to get a piece of Ukraine together with Russia, weren't probably the smartest moves among millions of other things.
I like Tesla as a product though (except the finish quality), but it's even less likely that FSD will come in Europe now...
And now, more oddly, it is a remotely controlled video and microphone, so even more creepy seeing the personalities of the people behind.
Deleted Comment
Do you have a link?
Dead Comment
The fact that you're using the same script as said media makes you sound like a bot that's part of the same cartel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/business/media/sinclair-n... and more recently https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/dems-slammed-over-ap...
I'm tired of right wing media sensationalizing the handful of radicals and ignoring the thousands and million of peaceful people. Just like during George Floyd protests.
barely anyone would even mention a regular protest in front of dealerships.
Laying off employees will not help federal government debt or budget.
I'm suprised anyone buys this line. Trump's 2025 GOP budget would increase deficits by $6 trillion [1]. Its end game is to increase tax cuts for the rich.
The cuts DOGE has done are likely to be reversed in costly court battles that will make the single-digit billions [2] Musk may have saved less than the costs of the fights. All of that is before considering the second-order economic effects of e.g. shutting down large sections of our national parks ahead of the summer season [3].
[1] https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/2/27/fy202...
[2] https://www.npr.org/2025/03/01/nx-s1-5313853/doge-savings-re...
[3] https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5307908/national-parks-...
Some people want what large, vastly-reaching governments provide. They just need to be aware that the people who run the government can change. The power you give to one "side" can be inherited by the other "side". People should always be wary of giving that power away, because you never know who will have it next.
Ofc there's more to this story than just DOGE too.
With a scalpel. Not an axe.
And preferably not by a bunch of Silicon Valley chads who call themselves "Big Balls" and who might've been checked for security credentials before taking the job.
Dead Comment
I got a PHEV Prius Prime in 2020 and I'm delighted with it. The battery has a range of about 20-25 miles, depending on the weather. My daily commute is about 10 miles each way, so I can make it to work and back without needing gas, and I only need to fill the tank three or four times a year. In my case it works out really well: driving an electric vehicle 95% of the time, and never any range anxiety.
The EV6 has a big touchscreen, a touch screen for combined media/climate controls, capacitive buttons for seat heat and steering wheel heat. However, many of the controls are available as physical buttons as well.
The capacitive controls are only on the GT Line trim; the Wind has physical controls for those button.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/volkswagen-bmw-group-el...
Of course sales are down if you start the quarter with near zero inventory and shutdown your factory.
Also, the Y lines were also down in the US and in Shanghai. It was the first time they launched a new version globally and simultaneously.
All teslas have cratered in value a minuscule number of them have been vandalized.
Another prominent example of a global boycott is Nike during the 1990s, but despite the widespread coverage, their revenue actually continued to grow.
A 35% sales drop is pretty crazy.
Tesla owners must be scared now to get attacked.
It's not, if you realize they started the quarter with almost no inventory (12 days in end of December, which is nothing for an OEM with no dealership).
More importantly, they shut down the production lines for the Y model to convert them to the new 2025 Juniper version. That's 2/3 of their total sales.
You can't sell cars you have no produced, obviously. It's April-May that you have to watch for deliveries, now that they finally started shipping the new Y out of Texas.
Dead Comment
And probably also competition.
But the political stuff sure doesn't help. Especially not when want to feel good/green when buying an EV.
If Musk would step aside as CEO, they do a successful re-design of each model, offer an affordable bare bones EV (200mi range, slow 0-60, FWD), then I think the company would be rock-solid as an investment and sales would go through the roof and they would break past the 5% of total car sales barrier.
One of Tesla's greatest assets were its fans. We've been burnt. Let the haters win.
Car designs get dated and need refreshes every few years (my opinion). Tesla has not gone through this cycle that all other car manufacturers go through (fact?) so I think to prove itself it needs to successfully navigate that cycle.
Opinionated, politicized CEOs of consumer products is not a good idea, doesn't matter what party affiliation. Its going to cause issues with the company and the board of directors would be justified in ousting someone like that. There's just not going to be a good outcome with someone like that at the helm.
Maybe it was warranted when the growth was crazy, but their early advantage has been squandered by their whack job CEO.
Right now, after losing almost half of its value, Tesla's stock still has a whooping 122 P/E; Tesla is still valued as a growth company while their sales are collapsing in the US, in Europe and in China, and with no other obvious market to compensate. Tesla hasn't launched a new mass market vehicle since March 2019, when Model Y was presented. That's 6 years ago! What other car manufacturer would survive so little innovation for so long? There are no new mass market vehicles in sight, just some robot taxis and robots and dreams of somehow generating a trillion dollar market on that in the very urban markets in the US and Europe where politicians and consumers despise Musk. Good luck with that. Already in 2024 - long before Musk went full throttle MAGA - Tesla stopped growing.
By now, European and Asian competitors have caught up with Tesla. Yes, Tesla is among the best on some measures, like price and range, but notby much, and it's also far down on the list on other aspects; the market is saturated with its 2 main models, it's not very luxorious, it's not of very good quality, etc. It's one good choice out of many good choices. The growth is gone, the moat is gone, and the Musk brand is now a liability.
Tesla shareholders are in for a rough ride.