If you’re determined to resist Elon Musk’s attack on the American government but you’re not sure how, here’s a suggestion: demonstrate in front of your nearest Tesla showroom. Here’s why.
Tesla is Elon Musk’s greatest source of wealth through his ownership of more than 400 million shares of its stock. If that stock price drops, his wealth drops. If the price drops enough, it’s a signal from Wall Street, telling Elon to quit degrading the federal government and get to work trying to restore the fortunes of his car company. It’s also a signal to the Elon’s fellow Silicon Valley edge lords that their dalliance with Trump might be expensive, and a signal to Trump and his politically-minded minions that Musk’s ripping up of the executive branch is becoming seriously unpopular.
Tesla is at a moment of vulnerability: sales have slipped in Europe and China – down more than 50 percent in Europe, and off 11.5 percent in China, where BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle maker has grabbed the lead in EV sales. Tesla finally has serious competitors in many of its markets, including in the US, and bumper stickers on Teslas in America proclaiming “WE BOUGHT IT BEFORE WE KNEW ELON WAS CRAZY.” are sprouting up. Tesla’s stock closed at an all-time high price in December, when Wall Street thought that maybe Musk’s tight hook-up with Trump would directly benefit the car company. That delusion is over. By mid-February, the price dropped more than 30%, grinding more than $40 Billion off Musk’s net worth. There’s a little blood in the water.
Tesla buyers in the US tend to hail from blue states and especially blue metro areas. Red-state rural Americans remain less sold on electric vehicles, thanks to their longer trips and paucity of charging stations, so if Tesla loses sales in blue states, it can’t leverage Elon’s MAGA cred to create offsetting sales in red states. In Washington, only one of Tesla’s 11 stores is east of the Cascades. In short, Tesla’s financial health, and therefore Musk’s personal wealth, depend on the continuing willingness of urban and suburban car buyers, of which there are more in blue states like Washington, to buy Teslas. It’s an exploitable chink in Elon’s armor.
Accordingly, this is a heart-warming news story about Tesla protests in Seattle this past weekend. So if you’d like to get maximum bang for your protesting buck, write up a few signs, recruit some friends, bundle up, and go spend time on the sidewalk in front of your nearest Tesla store, staring down would-be buyers.
There are 11 Tesla showrooms in Washington State and 5 in Oregon. Here (Thanks Tesla!) is a handy list of Tesla store locations by state.
Remember, it’s not a “Tesla”, it’s a “Swasticar”
While everyone is at, boycott Amazon too.
Ah. The elites no longer feel they can show their virtue by driving a Tesla! Now the script turns 180 to meaningless protests targeting Tesla so they can, well, you know, show their virtue. I guess it really was never actually about the climate…
As it stands, EVs aren’t doing a whole heck of a lot for the climate. You gotta kick the tires. https://www.earth.com/news/hidden-costs-electric-vehicle-tires-emit-20-more-pollution/.
Picketing Tesla is the right thing to do!
Or, chucklehead, there are now a large number of options from almost all automakers, so we don’t have to buy Swasticars to help the climate. You know, “Occams Razor”?
As Ruth notes, EV’s aren’t going to move the climate dial much. -Just don’t try to tell Jay Inslee that. I assume you appreciate that none of those EV options would exist without Elon taking the initiative to kick-start the industry, including building all the charging stations. And, I expect you also appreciate that childish name-calling is distinctively a Trump attribute.