Many Tesla owners who were once proud to own the electric vehicle are reportedly now embarrassed to be associated with the brand, as public furor against the company and its CEO, billionaire Elon Musk, gains momentum.
Musk’s influence in the White House has been tied to anger directed at Tesla — including Molotov cocktails thrown at a showroom in Las Vegas, dozens of Tesla cars vandalized in Hamilton and protests across North America and Europe. Even the Vancouver International Auto Show, which began on Wednesday and runs until Sunday, removed the automaker from this year’s event, citing safety concerns for attendees and exhibitors.
Now some Tesla owners who aren’t fans of the company’s owner are either scooping up anti-Musk bumper stickers or boycotting the brand by getting rid of their vehicles altogether.
Unhappy with U.S. President Donald Trump’s treatment of Canada, John Suk, of St. Catharines, Ont., decided to sell his Tesla and buy a Hyundai — even though he says he admired Musk’s innovations in the auto industry and his work in the field of space, and was impressed by Tesla’s charging network.
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“I always loved the car. I had it for five years. But with Elon Musk behaving the way he is, … I can’t support the ownership of that company,” he said, adding that he believes Musk is destroying the brand.
Suk said he is boycotting everything American and will not travel to the U.S. right now. “I stopped doing that last year and I won’t go there till Trump’s long gone.”
The anti-Tesla sentiment in Canada has only been gaining traction as people in several cities, including Ottawa and Vancouver, joined a wave of “Tesla Takedown” protests to voice displeasure with Musk’s role in sweeping cuts to the U.S. federal workforce and cancelling contracts related to humanitarian programs.
“You can’t divorce the personality from the business enterprise, and so, generally speaking, CEOs tend to keep a lower profile,” said Marvin Ryder, an associate professor of marketing at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business in Hamilton.
“Mr. Musk in his world, much like Mr. Trump in his world, have decided that they want the personality to outshine the brand,” he said. “So if I was on the board of Tesla, if I am one of the owners of Tesla stock, I am not happy.”
Ryder added that he believes Musk should take a leave of absence from the company while pursuing his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced by Trump even before he took office on Jan. 20, with a promise to slash jobs and spending.
“Leave your CEO’s position and divorce yourself from the company while you go and do that,” he said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to CBC News’s request for comment.
A Montreal Tesla dealership was vandalized, and the Vancouver International Auto Show has removed the vehicles for its events over safety concerns as backlash grows against Elon Musk and his influence in the White House.
‘No longer a source of pride’
Don Flatt says he also is not a fan of Musk, but he really wanted to enter the electric car market. He found a used 2024 Tesla Model 3 and convinced himself that because it was used, he wasn’t actually giving any money to Musk.
“I bought my Tesla before Elon Musk became a crazy person,” he said, adding that he loves the car for its efficiency and fast charging.
“Still not a fan of Elon. He definitely bought a winning company, though — well, at least it was,” said Flatt.
The Fredericton resident, who recently retired as an editor at the CBC, said he thought a magnet might be better than a bumper sticker, because when the current tension eventually goes away, he could remove it. But then he came up with the idea of making anagrams out of the Tesla logo.
Flatt is now planning to take off the logo at the back of the car and create an anagram that spells either “Steal” or “Least.”
Others who enjoy driving the car have been trying to dissociate the brand from the owner, while still holding on to a Tesla.
“Five years ago, I considered Elon Musk an idol and admired his business ventures with Tesla and SpaceX in particular,” said Paul Turnbull, of Ottawa.
“I was a proud purchaser of a Tesla Model Y soon after they became available for order in Canada in 2021. I still own and enjoy the car today, but it is no longer a source of pride as it once was given the current negative stigma against Elon.”
Turnbull recently put a sticker on his car that reads: “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy,” to perhaps gain some sympathy from onlookers and prevent his vehicle from being vandalized.
He said if he were actively car-shopping right now, Musk’s behaviour would influence his decision. But with the resale Tesla market in the doldrums, he said now is not the best time to sell.
Fallout for Tesla
Musk has lost several billion dollars of his personal wealth this year as shares in Tesla and sales of its electric vehicles plunge. The company that made Musk his fortune is no longer the most valuable asset in his portfolio, replaced by SpaceX.
Trump has said that Musk and Tesla are being treated unfairly, and Musk told Fox News on Tuesday: “Tesla is a peaceful company. We’ve never done anything harmful. I’ve never done anything harmful. I’ve only done productive things.”
Tesla is no longer the largest asset in Elon Musk’s portfolio as the company’s share price continues to slide for a ninth straight week.
Musk’s unpopularity seems to have extended to Europe, with his support of far-right parties, including Germany’s AfD, which came second in last month’s general election. It appears to have hurt Tesla’s sales on the continent, which were down 45 per cent in January from a year earlier.
Motorists have also traded in a record number of Tesla vehicles this month, data from national car shopping website Edmunds showed. March’s trade-ins so far would be the highest monthly share Edmunds has on record of Tesla trade-ins toward new or used purchases at dealerships, if the trend continues.
David Tindall, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said he suspects the backlash against the electric automaker is just the beginning of a larger movement against Trump.
“Tesla is kind of the low-hanging fruit in a mass protest that is going to ramp up against this whole administration,” he said.
Whether there is any coming back from the controversy for Musk and the company, Tindall said, “those are the two scenarios — that sales pick up amongst Trump supporters or that he sells Tesla.”
