Tesla Beyond Fucked: Highly Unlikely That Its Brand And Reputation (And Sales) Will Ever Recover

[hatrack]

Ed. - Links at original.

EDIT

The transformation of Tesla cars from a symbol of green progress to an embodiment of authoritarianism has been widespread and fast-moving. In the U.S., the brand’s fall from grace has mirrored Musk’s gutting of essential government agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In Europe, public ire has focused on Musk’s Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration and his backing of far-right political parties in Germany, Italy, and the U.K. In mid-February, the “Tesla Takedown” protest movement began organizing demonstrations at Tesla showrooms across the U.S. and Europe. A decentralized campaign originally launched by actor Alex Winter and sociologist Joan Donovan, Tesla Takedown has organized protests around the world — including hundreds in a single Saturday for its recent “Global Day of Action.” The movement’s advocates suggest that tanking Tesla’s stock price (and therefore also Musk’s net worth) is a viable means of reducing the political power of the man who is currently running a chainsaw through American institutions.

Most of the organized opposition to Tesla has been peaceful, but vandals torched Tesla cars and chargers in France, Germany, Massachusetts, Nevada, Missouri, and other states last month. The Trump administration has called attacks on Tesla products “domestic terrorism.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department will seek a 20 year prison sentence for one man accused of vandalizing a Tesla dealership.

As protests have gained steam, Tesla’s global sales have plummeted. Tesla announced on Wednesday that its worldwide sales in the first quarter of 2025 were down 13 percent from the same period in 2024. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reported that Tesla sales across the continent dropped in January and February by 43 percent compared to a year prior. Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council found that Tesla sales in the country were down 35 percent in the four months following Trump’s election victory compared with the year before. The country that has seen the biggest recent drop in Tesla sales is Germany, where sales fell by 76 percent year-over-year in February, according to the country’s road traffic agency.

EDIT

While EVs may be better for the planet than their gas-burning counterparts, they also fuel lithium extraction and require tremendous energy to manufacture. And Tesla has faced criticism for years for its apparent disregard for the well-being of its labor force — from miners in the Global South facing human rights abuses to factory workers in the U.S. and Europe who’ve documented hazardous conditions and hostile, racist work environments. Musk is also starkly anti-union: Tesla is the only major auto brand whose workers are not represented by any union in the U.S., and its refusal to negotiate with workers in Sweden resulted in a mechanics strike that has been dragging on since October 2023. Tesla has also had negative impacts on the local environments it operates in. Its factories have racked up huge fines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for emitting toxic chemicals. The expansion of a Tesla factory in Germany was opposed unsuccessfully by local residents and climate activists who said it threatened local drinking water resources.

EDIT

https://grist.org/transportation/tesla-takedown-sales-stock-musk-trump-climate-evs/

[pandr32]

1. We can't let the same happen to our country.

I hope Elon is held responsible for Tesla's slow death. May it stay on him like stink.

[MichMan]

2. I wouldn't want to be in fear that some lunatic was going to throw a molotov cocktail at it

Especially if it was parked in my driveway or my family was in it at the time.

[NNadir]

3. The big lie is that electric cars are "green." This would only be true if...

...electricity is "green," which with the exception of a few places like France and Southern Sweden in Europe, it isn't.

There is almost no place in the United States where electricity has a low enough carbon intensity to make an electric car have significantly less of a carbon impact than a gasoline car, although hybrids are slightly better than pure gasoline cars.

These things are a result of embodied energy, the energy resulting from manufacture.

All the pictures of vast tracts of land covered by wind turbines and solar farms have made the public delusional. Overall they are trivial window dressing on a fossil fuel dependent electrical grid.