But those days I see owning a Tesla as activism (probably unconsciously). I would preferably buy any another brand rather than being flagged as an Elon-fan in my neighborhood.
I and British. I do not really feel there is much political significance in what car you buy, but I am definitely annoyed by his attempts to influence British politics (offering a political party a huge donation if they allowed an extremist to join - they turned him down).
> Tesla has consistently ranked low in CR's reliability surveys:
> In the 2021 Brand Report Card, Tesla ranked 16th out of 32 brands, down from 11th in 2020.
> In 2022, Tesla ranked 23rd out of 28 brands with a reliability score of 39 out of 100.
> J.D. Power:
> In the 2023 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, Tesla had 242 issues per 100 vehicles, significantly above the industry average of 186, placing it 28th out of 32 brands.
> RepairPal:
> Tesla vehicles average 171 mechanical issues per 100 vehicles, compared to the industry average of around 120.
> 27th out of 28 brands in CR's reliability study (BusinessInsider.com and InsideEVs.com).
Now that's a statement! (also the Xiaomi Car has massively under specced breaks. But that's hard to notice as a normal driver as he is)
Well. the Wikipedia article on Henry Ford has a whole section entitled "Antisemitism" which starts "Ford was a conspiracy theorist" and details Nazi links.
So, what else is new in the world of Car Company tycoons?
Perhaps 50 or more years after the end of Tesla's iconic leader, the same rehabilitation will happen to Tesla.
In fact OP's comment somewhat shows the often noxious atmosphere in France. Here in the UK I see Teslas everywhere and people don't say or do anything (maybe they comment on the neighbour's new Tesla at home but they are polite in public in a very British way, and criminal damage is a serious crime...) In France I can believe that a Tesla owner may fear that their car will be vandalised or that some random people might throw insults at them in the street if Tesla is labeled the wrong way...
Edit: TBH, I wouldn't even say that there is a low tolerance for fascism because historically and to this day, economic interventionism, strong state, strong leader, political violence, tendency towards authoritarism, social conservatism have been big part of the culture. That is balanced by a tendency towards anarchism at the same time...
Edit: My comment is obviously not about cars number plates...
XX24 - registered between 1 Mar 2024 - 31 Aug 2024
XX74 - registered between 1 Sep 2024 - 28 Feb 2025
XX25 - registered between 1 Mar 2025 - 31 Aug 2025
etc
The first two letters of a number plate identifies the location where the vehicle was registered. For example, LA – LY covers London and MA – MY covers Manchester and Merseyside. Nothing personally identifying whatsoever.
If you're truly paranoid about such things you can always buy a car registered hundreds of miles from your residence, and in practice with an abundance of second-hand (used) cars in the marketplace from across all the UK, there's always a huge variety of registration letters driving about anyway!
https://www.newsweek.com/activists-brand-tesla-vehicles-swas...
Worst part (or best) the left will take an L on their beloved cars while selling them to right.
(Low tolerance for fascism, yes, obviously. But "social violence" is pretty much what passes for entertainment on a Saturday morning)
"French people" includes the French police, I presume.
For "social violence" it might be informative to substitute "direct action". For example, there is José Bové.
By the way, "Action Directe" was a famous French terrorist organisation in the 80s [1].
What Elon is doing in the US isn't organizing or demanding the system to be better; it's taking control of the system and saying he can do better.
Except when it comes to enforcing mandates and putting people in jail for stuff they post online.
It's always the same thing. Don't pretend Europeans have principles when they failed every test in the past 10 years
Also, even Farage's most implacable opponents would concede that he's by far the most effective campaigning MP in the UK, as well as an avid Trump supporter, so dumping him would be a hilarious own goal if it was even possible especially when it's dumping him for not endorsing a football hooligan. It would also be history repeating itself since Farage's old party went from winning elections to being a complete irrelevance when Farage "retired" and the hooligans joined...
On the other hand Trump supporters so seem to think he is absolutely wonderful - some sort of messiah.
But it's far from the support people have for Trump.
AT the last election the parties that got the biggest increases in their share of the vote were Reform and Green. Two very different parties and they have little in common other than not being Labour or the Conservatives. I suspect they would have done even better without a FPTP system.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/results (scroll down to see a graph of changes in vote percentage of votes cast).
FPTP also benefits parties with strong regional hotspots, such as Labour in cities.
Seeing as the difference was 1.89%, even marginally less effective campaigning would've doubtless resulted in a vote to remain in the EU.
I thought he wanted Farage to let Tommy Robinson join reform in return for a large donation.
> It would also be history repeating itself since Farage's old party went from winning elections to being a complete irrelevance when Farage "retired" and the hooligans joined
IIRC the trigger for Farage to leave that party (he had already resigned as leader) was the new party leader wanted to form an alliance with Tommy Robinson's lot.
Which came as a surprise to Farage who had previously welcomed and endorsed Musk's desire to interfere in UK politics: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1kez8d2dygo
He wanted Farage to bend all the way over. Farage refused so Elon tried to oust him, completely misunderstanding that the Reform party is Farage. It'd be like if Elon had gotten in a spat with Trump during the election and tried to swap him out for Vivek as the head of MAGA.
And needless to say, Trump's policies on the environment ("drill baby drill") don't exactly align with the hippie stereotype of electric car buyers ("no more oil").
Which is odd as it directly goes against his own interests.
> the hippie stereotype of electric car buyers ("no more oil").
Is that still the stereotype? This might depend on where you are (I am in the UK) but my stereotype of EV buyers is affluent with a tilt to urban.
His recent interest is power. He can use that for profit later in many different ways - he's working on firing people who wanted to investigate his idea of using X as a payment network, for example.
Which is odd as it directly goes against his own interests.
It goes against his image, not his interests. These are two very different things.
He was working with Stephen Miller, one of the crazier members of Trump's team (no easy achievement), on this.
A CNN investigation found that Vice President Kamala Harris is running contradictory ads about the war in Israel, depending on where you live.
If you live in Michigan, a state with a dense Muslim-American population, you will see ads about how she supports the relief efforts in Gaza, where she says she "will not be silent."
The Michigan ad states: "What has happened in Gaza in the past nine months in devastating, we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering," Harris is quoted in the ad.
If you drive East to Pennsylvania and flip on a television, you'll see the vice president at a different podium in an ad saying: "Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel's ability to defend itself."
For the second ad, taken from her DNC speech, the part where she advocates for peace in Gaza was edited out. CNN reports it was taken out so her message could be more strongly accepted by Jewish voters in Pennsylvania.
https://cbsaustin.com/news/beyond-the-podium/cnn-kamalas-con...
Giving more money to Tesla is giving more power to Musk, who is helping Trump and others achieve implement policies:
* https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
On the eco stuff specifically, Trump literally said that climate change was a Chinese hoax:
* https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/jun/03/hillary-cl...
* https://www.factcheck.org/2024/09/trump-clings-to-inaccurate...
* https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/trump-issues-execut...
Most recently "Trump bars federal scientists from working on pivotal global [IPCC] climate report":
* https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/21/climate/trump-blocks-scientis...
These are things even oil-man Dubya Bush didn't do.
It is who you pay. You are directly supporting him with the purchase.
According to this Musk only own 13%
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/TESLA-INC-6344549...
Barely more than Vanguard + Blackrock.
Tesla accounts for 60% of Musk’s wealth which he used to buy the US presidency and he continues to use to promote fascists around the world.
Depressing the value of Tesla stock reducing Musk’s influence.
This is performative.
I want to have nothing to do with any of his businesses, socials, services and I'm extremely worried about doge and his presence in the US administration.
The person completely lacks any empathy, it's a full blown sociopath. His politics are just a reflection of his deep psychological malaise.
> led German regulators to investigate Musk for election interference.
> How Elon Musk meddled in Germany's elections
Those articles disagree with your categorisation.
The foreign owner of a major social media platform is not in the same position as any random citizen donating 10 euros or tweeting once.
But he tries to influence European/British politics without living here, often believing mistruths or things out of context. Americans moan (rightfully so) when Europeans try get involved in their politics, but are happy to do the reverse.
Regarding Tesla, the UK/EU is going to make zero effort to protect Tesla from Chinese imports that the US will. Musk has burned that bridge.
You should. Whether you like it or not, what he is doing in the US is going to affect you one way or another, irrespective of his meddling in UK politics. Even if he focused his attention solely on US, the world is connected and particularly the US/European relationship has been one of the defining features of geopolitics over the last 70 years. Musk and company are basically dismantling this relationship.
The current US administration will profoundly alter the relationships between countries and power blocks for the foreseeable future. The US will cease being a reliable partner for it's old allies the UK included.
Musk was doing many cool things, but currently his focus seems to be to dismantle democracy, and this should definitely worry you if you value freedom.
Makes sense. Except that American politics can have a huge impact on Europe. Just look at Trumps shafting of Ukraine in favor of a relationship with Russia .
I don't care who votes what, but I certainly do not like when people who do not live here and do not have to deal with any consequences of an election result try do to election interference.
Both Kia and VW latest models do well against Teslas on range/battery (see the 2025 ID4 or EV models from Kia) e.g.
Tesla are not even as cool as Hyundai these days.
I ended up buying a Chevy Bolt during its final model year. This may be more of a reflection of my own history of buying inexpensive vehicles, but it is the best vehicle I have ever owned. I could not get over the price of the Ioniq. I just needed something that got me from point A to point B, and I wanted something that did so without gasoline. The Bolt far surpassed my requirements, and it was affordable. Honestly, I avoided American-made vehicles for a long time, having had bad experiences with the unreliability of a sequence of Dodges and Fords when I was younger. The Bolt changed my opinion about Chevrolet, although the CarPlay situation is pretty tragic…
Bolt sounds good.
I way looking at Ionic 5, but it was shortly before the facelift, so I could not even configure it anymore. Got a VW ID.7, very happy with it.
Are you referring to the SUV?
Because the sedan is extremely efficient aereodynamically:
https://media.mercedes-benz.ca/releases/release-c6ffb9918e70...
The ioniq 5, specifically, is great, although I kind of wish we would've waited for the 2025 model. I like physical buttons (which is one of the reason I like the Ioniq) and the 2025 model added some more. Plus it has wireless Android Auto, and a few other nice improvements.
Oh, the only actual complaint, still minor, is that it's turning radius isn't the greatest. That's really the only thing that bugs me about it.
Right? Right?
The Volkswagen company originated during the Third Reich in an attempt to create an affordable car for the German people. Volkswagen used both Jewish and non-Jewish forced labor, primarily from eastern Europe. The company operated four concentration camps and eight forced-labor camps on its property.
7 Brands With Nazi Ties That We All Use https://allthatsinteresting.com/major-brands-nazi-collaborat...
But before that? You were a clear collaborator.
VW didn't even build cars for consumers during the war years.
This too shall pass, frankly I think it's a form of cringe virtue signaling.
It's also a form of collective punishment, "I won't buy Tesla because I don't like Elon" is certainly a valid opinion, but what about all the workers who have nothing to do with his politics?
This is a preposterous argument, I'm sorry. Should I feel sorry for people who enable Musk's antics? Why? They get paid very well to work for him I'm sure.
I disagree with Musk's antics and as such I'm not going to give him money. What's so difficult to understand about this?
I don't care that in 20 years time he'll be forgotten. We are here and now, and the best way to send him a message that what he is doing is not OK is by hurting his wallet.
Sending "real" messages is more than not buying things from companies or people you don't like and then virtue signaling about it online from the comfort of your armchair.
I think it's highfalutin.
Nothing stopped Elon from divesting himself of his commercial holdings and announce that he wants to enter politics. Then I, and many others, would have no qualms about buying Tesla cars.
Obviously, doing so would've required a degree of personal integrity and humility, which he seems to be lacking.
"Those Nazis are killing our soldiers right now in the north, but I will still buy one of their good cars", said nobody.
https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/volkswagen-chronicle-173...
But even that goes to my point, people still buy VW because they're either ignorant or soon forget these things.
This is the world we live in.