At the beginning of this school year, I noticed that Teslas had become the preferred car of the Indian-Americans I encountered when picking my son up in the afternoon. I didn’t sense that this was any kind of political statement, but it definitely conferred some status. The cars aren’t cheap, after all.
But they’re also electric, and therefore have the potential to appeal to climate-minded people on the left. An earlier generation signified their environmental responsibility by purchasing a Toyota Prius, but progressives today seem just as likely to drive a gasoline-fueled Subaru Forrester.
I drive a hybrid but it’s reaching the end of its natural life, so I’ve been paying more attention than usual to what other people are driving. I’d like to be done with gasoline for good, so Teslas were definitely on my watch list.
But, like a lot of other people, that’s over now that Elon Musk has decided to declare himself my political enemy. To be honest, I never much liked him, but he hadn’t given me a reason to take my disdain out on his cars until he started cuddling up to Vladimir Putin. That was the end for me.
I don’t like that he purchased Twitter and I don’t like the way he’s been running Twitter. But it’s his friendliness with the Kremlin that crosses my red line. If you can’t take a stand against fascism, then I am definitely not giving you any of my money.
His generally right-wing attitudes are turning off people on the left in a major way, and the left is more of a natural market for his cars than the right, so it’s not surprising that Tesla’s stock is dropping like a stone.
I’ll find a different electric car to buy and I’ll hope he loses every dime he’s every made and winds up on public assistance.
As Boston journalist David Bernstein pointed out on the bird app the other day, Musk is so unimaginably rich that (paraphrasing) if he’d put his money in a Vanguard 500 fund at the beginning of the year, then bought a yacht and lit it on fire *every day of the year*, he’d have more money than he did in 2021. So no, as much as some of us might like to fantasize about Musk ending up on public assistance, that’s not going to happen.
Everything else—the support for Putin and other right-wing dictators, the way he’s running Twitter, his generally obnoxious views and behavior—I not only agree with, I think it’s becoming a a much more widely and firmly held set of reasons for more and more of the target audience for Tesla not to buy his wares. (Not unlike what Henry Ford’s anti-Semitism did to Ford Motor Company’s sales to Jews.)
Back in March, I shopped around for a second car, because both kids drive now. I try to find an older car with low mileage and I found the 2013 Lexus version of the Prius over in Green Bay. But I was never especially impressed with the older hybrids – they get decent mileage, but it’s not that great. But right next to it was a 2010 Lexus IS 250 with fewer than 80,000 miles. My ex convinced me to get it, and it is pretty nice as a vehicle I don’t have to use much but is fun to drive. Anyway, my kid drives it all the time, so I never see it anyway. I walk everywhere.
But a little later, I took the Amtrak out to DC with my son, because he missed the 9th-grade DC trip due to covid. We borrowed a Prius+ to get down to Mt. Vernon and later drove up to Comet Ping Pong – the pizza is good, but my edgelord kid had other reasons to want to check it out. Anyway, we tanked up the Prius+ to return it in Georgetown and having driven around the DC region all day, we only had to put in one gallon of gas.
That was impressive. So my suggestion would be that if you can find a Prius+, get that. I called up the local dealer to get on a list. When my kid goes off to college or whatever, maybe I can trade in the Lexus for a Prius+. I’m sure it’ll be a couple of years before I can get one.
Tesla stock has been falling for some time–I think mainly because the big boys are jumping into the market now. Also, Tesla’s valuation probably only made sense if it had the entire car market for the world to itself.
But you’re right, Musk’s antic’s does seem to be hurting Tesla’s brand. He’s the major stock owner, but not the majority owner. Not sure if the other stock holders can do anything about him–or who would want to take over Tesla now. It can still make money, probably even more now, but it’s stock price is falling back to Earth.
The EV as a concept was cool. Tesla seemed like one of those companies that has had a difficult time making a reliable vehicle. I was reading somewhere that your average Tesla is just a bit more reliable than a Jeep (and friends don’t let friends buy Jeeps). I’m glad to see the major players in the auto biz get into the EV game, and most of those will end up having pretty good track records, and cause their owners minimal headaches. I’m holding off on EVs for a while. Mainly, the infrastructure for EVs is simply not there in my state or region just yet. That will change in time. Bottom line is we need more charging stations in the areas where I might drive any real distance. Then there’s the cost, and I’m in the wrong profession to be able to roll out of bed and buy a new car and afford its insurance premium. So it goes.
I have two hybrids. One of the kids drives one of them. I drive the other. Both are roughly a decade old but have less than 130k miles, so they have plenty of life left in them. Also have a conventional gasoline powered SUV that is also about a decade old, and it also has a lot of life left in it. I’ll generally sing the praises of Toyotas. The Priuses we have are true workhorses. I wish the upcoming 5th generation Prius had a true EV option, but the plug-in hybrid Prius Prime is probably the best bet, if you can scrounge up the cash for it. I am looking forward to the day when we can do away with the internal combustion engine altogether. I won’t be getting a Tesla, though.
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When you eventually choose your car, would you mind updating us? I’m also going to be shopping for a new car in the next ~3-6 months, and it’s going to be electric. I thought this could be pushed off for another 3 years or so, but I’m afraid not. Better to start looking now before the car goes up in smoke completely.
Tesla was never going to be my choice, but the Twitter drama absolutely solidified it.
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I had a Model 3 lease, that ended earlier this year. There were many good things about it, but also many bad things about Tesla’s after sales service.
I did not consider buying a different electric vehicle, simply because non-Tesla chargers are a) comparatively slow, and b) much fewer. In the Target parking lot in Simi Valley, where I used the the Tesla superchargers, there were 5x Tesla charging stations.
Also in our friends’ circle (Asian Indians) there is range anxiety. Any trip to the Bay Area easily adds 30 mins (often longer – because all the chargers on I-5 are in use, and one has to wait for an empty one)!.
Tesla NoMo!
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