A business selling anti-Elon Musk bumper stickers is providing some insight into Tesla owners turning against the companyβs CEO.
Since Musk bought Twitter and dove head-first into politics and social commenting, many former fans and Tesla owners have grown angry with the CEO and the company he controls.
Many analysts are claiming this is hurting Tesla, but it is hard to verify if this is true and if it is, it is even harder to quantify to what degree.
Some Tesla owners are claiming that they wonβt buy a Tesla again, others are claiming that they plan to sell their Tesla vehicles.
In some interesting instances, some Tesla owners choose to keep their cars, but they put bumper stickers on them to make it clear that driving a Tesla doesnβt mean that they support Elon Musk.
The Guardian talked to Matt Hiller, who operates an online store selling anti-Elon bumper stickers, and he claims that he sells hundreds of those stickers every day:
Hiller started the sticker range last year after deciding against buying a Tesla due to Muskβs βamplifying of horrible people and silencing of othersβ on X, formerly Twitter, another of his companies. Several hundred stickers a day are now being sold, primarily to Tesla owners, Hiller said, bearing texts such as βAnti Elon Tesla Clubβ or βI Bought This Before Elon Went Crazyβ, or a picture of Musk in clown makeup with the words βSpace Clownβ.
The fact that thereβs a real business model behind selling Anti-Elon bumper stickers gives us an idea that this problem is at least somewhat significant.
The Guardian has also interviewed several Tesla owners who are communicating that they are considering selling their vehicles because of Musk β although thatβs all anecdotal.
Musk previously commented on the idea that his latest antics are hurting Tesla, but he rejected it βΒ claiming that Tesla is currently seeing record sales.
Tesla will likely have record sales this quarter, but thatβs after deliveries are down year-to-date versus last year, a first for Tesla in a decade. Meanwhile, Tesla has slashed prices and offered more sales incentives than ever.
Electrekβs Take
I think this is a clear problem, but itβs impossible to evaluate the scale of it. I hear many people say that they want to get rid of their Tesla vehicles because of Elon, and some of them are doing it, but many people are also just talking.
The way I see it, the impact will be felt more long-term. I donβt think many people would sell their vehicles because they donβt like what the CEO of the company making it is doing β even if it is has bad as buying an election for a candidate who stands against some of the main values the company was founded around.
However, I think many of these people will decide not to buy another one when it is time. Again, the impact is more long-term.
Secondly, I think the Trump-Musk partnership will keep getting worse. Elon fans who are still supporting him believe that his βsuper genius intelligenceβ will allow him to fix the US government under Trump, and that simply sounds ridiculous to me.
I think the circus will come to town, and chaos will ensue. I would wish them the best, but thatβs only if they have good intentions for the US, which I doubt, sadly. Part of me believes that they are trying to turn the US into something similar to a post-soviet Russian oligarchy. I hope Iβm wrong.
