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.
Can confirm. Am one. Bought in 2018
You need one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Tesla-Bumper-Sticker-Bought-Accessories/dp/B0C4KHKN4S
I actually have the one that’s a red F and after that ELON. I love that it says felon but also fuck Elon.
Please reach out to my brother in law with this
I think it would be funny to put that on my non-electric Kia Soul lol
While Tesla remains the dominant EV maker
Well actually they don’t, they’ve been surpassed by BYD.
Expect like 200% tariffs on those going to the US
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?
BYD is working on a factory in Mexico
I love the fact that Chinese companies are outsourcing production to America, now.
Volvo and Polestar are made in Sweden and owned by the Chinese today. Both are pretty popular in EU.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, cybertruck owners are doubling down on their wankpanzer purchase.
adds ‘wankpanzer’ to lexicon
You might like Incelcamino too, I shamelessly stole it from someone else here.
Cyber truck owners seem like the same people that previously were making fun of EVs.
They seem like the same asshats who would block EV’s in at the chargers or take EV parking spots at malls/stores with their overcompensating trucks
While I appreciate the gender neutrality, it made me wonder: are there any women who voluntarily own a cyber truck? Every douchebag I see in or posing with one is a guy.
There’s not many women who own trucks in general, cyber or otherwise.
There are plenty of Ag women around me driving trucks. And if we’re including SUVs, which the cybertruck is more similar to then any real truck, that number goes way up. Especially among mothers, toxic maternity pushes SUV sales. “I just don’t seem safe picking up little Timmy in anything other then a 3 ton tank.”
Obviously, since an SUV is considered a great family car.
https://motorandwheels.com/pickup-truck-demographics-segments/
88% of pickup truck buyers identify as male.
That doesn’t mean that SUVs are good family vehicles. Station Wagons and Minivans existed before SUV. The added weight of SUVs only created a danger for other drivers and pedestrians.
I’m just dropping this here too. I don’t want the previous stat being cited as absolute fact when it seems there is quite a variance on who did what study.
https://mobile.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/55986/5-surprising-facts-about-pickups-and-their-owners/ https://www.core77.com/posts/100454/Surprising-Design-Research-Insights-About-Pickup-Truck-Owners
Don’t get me wrong, I hate SUV’s, but they are still widely considered to be good family vehicles.
Despite being overkill in most cases IMO. They are to big uneconomic and dangerous.
And the concept kind of started in the mid 80’s with the dodge Caravan introduced by Chrysler.
I’m going to need some data for that one before I believe it. In the US, I have known many women who own trucks. I have lived in rural and urban areas and both had plenty of women who owned and drove trucks, including semi cabs. I could believe less by comparison but not “not many” without some data.
Just an anecdotal observation. A very small amount of trucks I see have women driving them. Could be lots of reasons for that but the simplest seems to be that women don’t buy them near as often. I don’t feel like an offhand remark needs a citation, though you’re welcome to look it up if you find the subject interesting enough to warrant further research.
Another explanation is that women who buy trucks are more likely to also buy tinted windows. Which is reasonable because both are ways a woman can feel more secure and protected in a vehicle.
I have no idea how such an obvious observation can be downvoted? It’s an easily verifiable fact that women don’t drive trucks as much as men.
https://motorandwheels.com/pickup-truck-demographics-segments/
88% of pickup truck buyers identify as male.
I didn’t officially cite my eyeballs when I posted my observation. Apparently that is a mortal sin to some people here.
Obviously it’s relative compared to men.
Indirectly implied, women have a generally better safety record than men, and Trucks have the worst safety record. So there might be a trend that fewer women than men drive trucks for safety reasons.
In my experience women generally prefer smaller cars, which also would mean that trucks are not generally preferred by women.
Also when you look at professional cargo truck drivers, there’s an overwhelming majority of men.
Trucks and pickup trucks are used for things that are bulky and heavy, women generally don’t do as much physical heavy lifting as men.All these facts, put together with personal experience, that indeed more men than women drive trucks, fit together, and I see absolutely no evidence against it.
You can very quickly make your own survey. Go to Youtube and search cybertruck or just truck, and see how many men and women post either.
Edit:
I just did the youtube search myself, and I had to scroll past 20 videos before the first featuring a woman turned up, something about the 70’s being great?!Edit 2:
https://motorandwheels.com/pickup-truck-demographics-segments/88% of pickup truck buyers identify as male.
https://mobile.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/55986/5-surprising-facts-about-pickups-and-their-owners/ https://www.core77.com/posts/100454/Surprising-Design-Research-Insights-About-Pickup-Truck-Owners
Guess it’s all about who is running the survey. And, I did say drive not purchased new.
This whole thing reads like an advertising piece: Everybody buys pickup trucks disregarding age or gender, and the only thing that can make them give it up is not having sex… Seems like garbage to me. This is NOT consistent with my pretty obvious findings on youtube, and the research I posted earlier.
The study I linked to is much less biased, and reflected my findings looking at youtube videos.Here’s another study that shows very similar results to the one I posted earlier:
https://www.zippia.com/pick-up-truck-driver-jobs/demographics/
Male, 89.7%
Female, 10.3%
are there ANY women who voluntarily own a cyber truck?
Emphasis by me.
That’s a weird question, because obviously there are some, probably about 12% according to stats:
https://motorandwheels.com/pickup-truck-demographics-segments/12% of pickup truck owners being women absolutely does not mean 12% of cyber truck owners are women, that’s truck ownership by women among all brands.
I’m saying I think one brand and one specific truck model probably is doing even worse among women than trucks in general.
You wrote any to which the obvious answer is yes. And it’s not so hard to find evidence:
https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/celebrities-who-bought-a-tesla-cybertruck/Pleased to introduce you to this new concept today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole
Why would you proudly state you were using hyperbole?
Also you don’t have to link the meaning of the word, I’m familiar with common words, if you are not I’d be happy to link a whole dictionary to you:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hyperbole
if Musk ever made the affordable car he’s been promising since day 1 I’d be one of these people
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
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
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.
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.
I believe he was always awful he was just bad at showing it
You mean he was good at hiding it.
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.
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”.
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
Former owner here. Such a relief to be rid of it. Never again as long as Musk remains at Tesla.
Out of curiosity. What are you driving now?
Rivian
Moneybags.
I bought it used, so it was way more affordable than you might think.
Ya flush with da bux?
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
Get a sticker “My other car is a piece of shit too.”
The fact that it is taking this long still shocks me.
be happy it’s happening
I’ve been seeing more and more of those stickers around the last couple of years. I think this is just the media catching up
Once admired by liberals for his environmental advocacy,
They now know him for the liar that he is.
At least two years late, but good for them anyway, I guess.
We’re going to turn in our death trap next year and get something from an actual car company
If you’re looking for a similar class EV, I just got the mach-e and I love it.
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?
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).
🤷♂️
We need to popularize videos of people destroying their teslas and driving away in a better car.
Imagine paying for a car, then destroying it to “own” the owner of the company making them LMAO 🤣
Well I am talking about the people who bought them before he signed on with trump and stuff. Most of them can afford it anyway.
Just like MAGAs buying and pouring out Bud Light.
While Tesla remains the dominant EV maker, …
BYD has entered the chat.
The US will just slap enough tariffs to make them roughly the same price as the competition.
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.
Hoping Aptera takes off tbh
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.
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.
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.
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.
deleted by creator
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.
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.
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.
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.
Which is defintely a great strategy to reduce transportation emissions. And clearly everyone NEEDS a truck.
Car companies sell what customers want, not what they need.
Or are car companies only offering the bigger models because they make more profits?
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.
A want a decent electric sedan/hatchback but here we are.
A SUV is too big for what I need.
There’s the Bolt, Leaf, MachE, Ioniq…
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.
Wants that have been created from decades of propaganda by the auto industry.
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.
No need. You can’t even legally import them.
As your Canadian buddy, do you want a hookup? We’ll meet on the border of Alberta and Montana under the moonlight where the moose crows.
Not if we slap tariffs on Canada…
Enjoy that Aunt Jemima with your pancakes, buddy.
We’ve still got Vermont. We’ll be ok.
As a former Vermonter with a lot of state pride… you’d be amazed how few gallons Vermont actually produces! Also, if shit really hits the fan, we might end up with Vermont too!
I’m not your buddy, guy
I’m not your guy, pal
I’m not your guy, fella.
moose crows.
A terrifying hybrid species that weigh a thousand pounds, can fly, and remember the faces of those who have wronged them.
Here you go
lmao Canadians cant import BYD either. Check out the stupid rules for importing cars we have… Gonna have to wait 15 years for those imports.
Yeah - but I bet a few Canada Goose jackets to the right guy will get me a waiver.
And if that doesn’t do it, release the geese.
I’m not saying no. What can we bring for the trade? I’m not really sure what Canada needs from the US at this point, but we’re willing to be flexible.
I’m afraid you’re gonna have to be more specific.
Ever heard of dumping? Because that’s exactly how you fight it.
Elon has became more embarrassing for sure.
I would be embarrassed. I crossed t-la off my list when I started looking for an EV last year. Bought an i5 instead, and a t-la adapter in case I ever needed it. When I tried to use that adapter at a t-La super charger I was locked out. It looked like it might be necessary to give $ to melon husk, but they refused to give me e-, so it was no deal. And I found a free outlet elsewhere. Melon Husk, so compostable.
Yeah, paid my non-refundable deposit (grr), saw him buy Twitter, got out of there, bought a Volvo. Nicer hardware, actually preferable highway self driving for me, infotainment does take several minutes to boot. Very glad not to be trusting Musk’s word for my safety/privacy.