“This has been our family car for three years, and it has been an absolute dream,” says Ben Kilbey as he shows me his gleaming pearl-white Tesla Model Y.
Ben is a staunch electric car advocate. He runs a communications firm that promotes sustainable businesses in the UK. Yet now, he says, the Model Y has to go – because he disapproves vehemently of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s actions, especially the way he has handled firing US government employees.
“I’m not a fan of polarisation, or of doing things without kindness,” he says. “There are ways of doing things that don’t ostracise people or belittle them. I don’t like belittlement.”
Ben is part of a wider backlash against the Tesla boss that appears to have been gathering momentum in recent weeks, since Musk was appointed head of the controversial Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE), charged with taking an axe to federal government spending.
Musk has also intervened in politics abroad, making a video appearance at a rally for the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland ahead of Germany’s parliamentary election, as well as launching online attacks on British politicians, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
For some who do not share his views, it has all become too much.
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There have been protests outside dozens of Tesla dealerships, not only in the US, but also in Canada, the UK, Germany and Portugal.
Although most of them have been peaceful, there have been cases of showrooms, charging stations and vehicles being vandalised. In separate incidents in France and Germany, several cars were set on fire.
In the US, the Tesla Cybertruck, an angular metallic pickup truck, appears to have become a particular magnet for anti-Musk sentiment. A number of social media videos have shown vehicles daubed with swastikas, covered with rubbish or used as skateboard ramps.
US President Donald Trump was quick to show his support to Tesla, by allowing the company to show off its vehicles outside the White House, and pledging to buy one. He said violence against US showrooms should be treated as “domestic terrorism”.
Musk has also been unequivocal in his response. “This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong,” he said in a recent interview with Fox News. “Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks.”
What is hard to quantify is exactly how much impact all this has had on Tesla as a business – and the extent to which Musk’s views and involvement in the Trump administration has affected the brand and alienated some traditional electric vehicle buyers.
And if that is the case, can Tesla really build on its past success with Musk remaining at the helm?
Reported by BBC
