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.

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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    5 days ago

    if Musk ever made the affordable car he’s been promising since day 1 I’d be one of these people

    • Trashboat@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 days ago

      He doesn’t deliver on his promises. He didn’t for the people who paid him large amounts for a car, he certainly won’t for the budget minded folk

      • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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        5 days ago

        He already (publicly at least) lost his mind by the time the cyber truck came out but that was the correct direction for a cheap vehicle

    • MrVilliam@lemmy.world
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      5 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.

      • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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        4 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.world
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          3 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
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            4 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.

      • ArtieShaw@fedia.io
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        5 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

  • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    So sell it? Plenty of musk fanboys will buy and selling used will reduce his income. Unless there are some non-transferable nonsenses that discourage private transfer?

    • andyburke@fedia.io
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      5 days ago

      I’m in the market for a used EV - I won’t touch a Tesla (not just because of Musk, but he’s a part of it).

      🤷‍♂️

  • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Former owner here. Such a relief to be rid of it. Never again as long as Musk remains at Tesla.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    While Tesla remains the dominant EV maker

    Well actually they don’t, they’ve been surpassed by BYD.

    • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I rent a lot of cars for work travel and BYDs are nowhere near as nice as Teslas to drive. That will change in time though, and their batteries are already better I believe.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I’ve only seen one review, I think it was called Dolphin. Overall the car was reviewed as OK to very good for the price here in Denmark, but the handling was awful.
        It shall be interesting to see how well the new LiFePo batteries do, the current gen Blade batteries are allegedly good, but have proven to not be quite as safe as they were supposed to be. Safety was supposed to be a big feature of blade batteries. But in reality, they are only marginally better than other batteries.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Yes AFAIK BYD is not available in USA, they are in most of the rest of the world though.
        And the Musk shame is not isolated to USA either.

        AFAIK BYD is working on a factory in Mexico, so maybe USA will get them from there in the future?

        • superkret@feddit.org
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          3 days ago

          BYD is working on a factory in Mexico

          I love the fact that Chinese companies are outsourcing production to America, now.

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Volvo and Polestar are made in Sweden and owned by the Chinese today. Both are pretty popular in EU.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    5 days ago

    While Tesla remains the dominant EV maker, …

    BYD has entered the chat.

    • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      The US will just slap enough tariffs to make them roughly the same price as the competition.

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        As is the way of the “free market”. Us automakers aren’t even trying to compete, half their EVS are massive SUVs/trucks instead of smaller, lighter, more effecient designs.

        • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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          5 days ago

          What about the rest of the industry in the US? I don’t know why people focus on the two remaining US ICE manufacturers and ignore the dozens of other foreign manufacturers that sell vehicles here when discussing Chinese EVs.

        • Steve@communick.news
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          5 days ago

          Which is exactly the same pattern they repeated in the 70s. Which is when Japan ate their lunch.

          This time though is a little different, with China’s vastly lower worker costs, and possible government subsidization in an attempt to corner the world auto market. I can understand and agree with the 100% tariff.

          • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            I’d be fine with the tarrif if there was a manufacturer actually trying to compete. Instead it feels like “nooo we can’t have byds cars here, americans need the electric F250 supercab!!!”

            I’d also be fine with the tarrif if there was going to be massive investments in public transit which could reduce the need to own a car and transit tends to be more effecient than even the best EVs and is more fair to more people.

            • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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              5 days ago

              I’d be fine with the tarrif if there was a manufacturer actually trying to compete

              What about all the Japanese, Korean, and European brands selling cars here? Is there another market outside of China, where everything is sold well below cost after being built using slave labor and lax environmental regulations, where new cars are as cheap as you want them to be? I think they are competing but the cars are just expensive to build. China is hiding that expense from buyers just long enough for them to try to take over every local market at which time there will be no reason to keep them subsidized because all the competition will be gone.

              • treefrog@lemm.ee
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                4 days ago

                Everything is getting tariffed that’s not manufactured in the U.S. China is just the highest.

                • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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                  4 days ago

                  Most of these brands do manufacture in the US, though, and even Ford and GM manufacture in Canada and Mexico. My issue is with people claiming that these tariffs (prior to Trump) are just protectionism for the couple remaining US companies when they’re not. They’re protectionism for the entire US auto market, which mostly consists of foreign brands.

              • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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                4 days ago

                America uses slave labor in the same way, plus with prisoners, so where’s our ultra cheap EVs? Apparently we need to use our “resources” better.

          • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            I think it’s a complicated situation but the legitimate reason for the tariffs (not just Musk shoveling money into Tesla) is that battery production is a strategic interest for drones and other military equipment.

            I think it’s logical we should make sure the US battery industry is able to develop.

        • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          They are very much competing.You’re just confused about what they’re competing in. It’s profit, not size of vehicle, or efficiency or what have you. The F-150 is still the top selling vehicle in North America. Turns out small vehicles make less profit so they stopped making them and inflated the size of all remaining models.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  The Chevy Bolt, a subcompact EV, has been around since 2016. The Nissan Leaf has been around since 2010.

                  Subcompacts of all types, EV and ICE alike, simply don’t sell as well as trucks in the US.

              • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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                4 days ago

                A want a decent electric sedan/hatchback but here we are.

                A SUV is too big for what I need.

                • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  The SUV costs more upfront, costs more to recharge, has larger tires which cost more and pollute more. The costs really add up fast if you are living on a budget.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  Do you want a truck too? Or are you the only person capable of resisting the power of auto industry propaganda?

                  The fact that people in different places do not all want the same cars is strong evidence that their wants result from human agency, not auto propaganda.

  • Brodysseus@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I have a beater 97 Corolla. Don’t care about stuff hitting it one bit. I wanna get some kind of funny sticker that’s like “at least it’s not a Tesla” or something like that