American electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla is quickly turning into damaged goods for some one-time fans, with everyone from average citizens to celebrities like Sheryl Crow selling off their Teslas or rebadging their EVs like an automotive fig leaf.
Singer and actress Sheryl Crow recently gained attention after posting a video on Instagram of her Tesla being towed away with a promise that money from the sale would be donated to American public broadcasting organisation NPR.
“My parents always said… you are who you hang out with,” Crow said.
“There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with. So long Tesla. Money donated to @npr, which is under threat by President Musk, in hopes that the truth will continue to find its way to those willing to know the truth.”
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The comment section was awash in celebrities patting one another on their backs, but did reveal that CNN journalist Alisyn Camerota had also ‘dumped’ her Tesla as well.
Media outlets around the globe have also been filling column inches by reporting on an increasing number of non-celebrities who have also been dealing with Tesla buyer’s remorse, many of whom have also sold their Teslas.
The New York Times, for example, this week highlighted the travails of several Tesla owners who have found themselves called out as a “Nazi” or received threatening phone calls. One Tesla owner, Jennifer Trebb, a family therapist and a Democrat, told the New York Times that she had bought a bumper sticker for her Tesla that read, ‘I bought this before Elon went crazy’.
The story also highlighted similar stories from overseas, such as Paul Unwin, 67, a London based writer and director who said that he paid an early-termination fee of about 500 British pounds in December to extricate himself from a three-year lease on his Tesla Model Y.
Unwin’s replaced his Tesla with a Polestar 3, a decision which his neighbours reportedly praised.
Not everyone has the financial resources to simply up and sell off their Teslas – especially considering the potential huge depreciation tag that would come with doing so, made even worse in this particular climate.
Imaginative measures have had to be taken, therefore, to live with the shame of owning and driving a Tesla and ensuring that “Nazi” bumper stickers don’t magically appear from out of nowhere, or would-be citizen vigilantes don’t key the car.
In an Instagram post this week, Courier, a “pro-democracy news network” that was founded in 2019, highlighted a number of Tesla owners from across the United States who have rebadged their Teslas to everything from a Honda, Mazda, or even Audi A5.
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Others, on the other hand, have taken a more fantastical approach to rebadging their Teslas.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.