There are myriad reasons to loathe Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who has become a top ally of Donald Trump.
OG haters have long accused Musk of endangering road users by exaggerating the capabilities of Tesla’s navigation assistance systems, misleadingly named Autopilot and Full-Self Driving. The ranks of the angry have steadily grown, fueled by Musk’s habit of amplifying trans-bashing and antisemitism as well as his demolition of Twitter. Now, as Musk cozies up to extremists across Europe, wields the Department of Government Efficiency as a wrecking ball against the federal government, and generally acts as an unelected leader, the furor is reaching a fever pitch.
The signs are everywhere. Tesla owners are scrambling to buy bumper stickers with messages like “Shut Up Elon” and “I Bought This Before Elon Went Crazy”; activists are labeling the vehicles “swasticars.” Anti-Musk graffiti has appeared the world over, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Wellington, New Zealand, to The Hague. In Berlin, police are trying to figure out who projected an image of Musk’s Nazi salute along with the words Heil Tesla on the side of the city’s Tesla factory.
It might feel as if Musk is untouchable. But he’s not. And this growing discontent can be channeled into concrete action. If you want Musk to feel your rage, don’t buy a Tesla. And if you already own one, consider selling it.
Musk’s stake in Tesla comprises the lion’s share of his wealth. He can laugh off a few protesters, but if consumers launch a sustained boycott, both Musk and his car company could find themselves in dire straits. Tesla was already in a precarious position before Musk’s flirtation with the far right turned into an all-out embrace. Nosediving sales would be an incapacitating blow.
Yes, under normal circumstances, skepticism about consumer boycotts is justified. Despite a few legendary triumphs, such as the 1960s Delano grape boycott, which helped Cesar Chavez secure wage increases for farmworkers, and the 1980s South African boycott, which hastened the end of apartheid, their overall track record is spotty. Rather than cave to customer demands, targeted companies often wait until popular anger subsides and the media loses interest. Nike, BP, and Goya are among the brands that have emerged relatively unscathed in recent years. “Outrage comes and goes, and so do boycotts,” University of Pennsylvania marketing professor Americus Reed wrote in the New York Times in 2017.
But for a combination of reasons, consumer rejection could be uniquely devastating to Tesla right now. The company’s vulnerability stems from its eye-popping market valuation, which was $1.15 trillion as of Friday. To put that figure in perspective, it is five times as high as Toyota’s, 25 times as high as General Motors’, and 31 times as high as Ford’s. (Each of these companies builds vastly more vehicles.) Equally stunning is Tesla’s astronomical price-to-earnings ratio of 181, which assumes mind-boggling profit growth. For years, Tesla’s lofty stock price has provided a notable advantage over competitors, since each share offered as compensation to employees is so valuable.
Tesla’s soaring valuation has been driven primarily by two forces: first, historically scorching sales growth across its three core markets of North America, Europe, and China; and second, investor belief that Musk is a genius who can conjure lucrative innovations out of thin air. (Although Musk has described Tesla as a diversified “chain of startups,” automobile sales accounted for about 85 percent of its revenue in 2023. So it’s kind of just a car company.) Tesla’s media events are a circus, with Musk playing ringleader as he unveils futuristic products like humanoid robots, self-driven taxis, and even an Art Deco bus (which did look pretty cool, admittedly).
But even before Musk’s pivot to the hard right, Tesla was under mounting pressure. The company’s global vehicle sales fell in 2024, the first such decline in its history, and its profit margins have been shrinking. The Cybertruck, Tesla’s first new product in years, has flopped, and the company’s existing lineup is growing stale, with only minor updates in the works.
“Tesla’s refreshes are pretty modest, and they’re driven by improving profitability,” said Ed Niedermeyer, who has written a book about Tesla and is working on a follow-up. “They’re not necessarily delivering a lot of extra value to customers, and they’re certainly not keeping up with the torrid level of competition in China.” In 2022 and 2023, Tesla’s growth in China exceeded 40 percent; in 2024 it was just 8 percent—and January sales fell 11.5 percent.
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Tesla faces headwinds elsewhere too. In Europe, consumer demand is weak, and Chinese EV companies like BYD and Xpeng are expanding their presence, which “leaves the U.S. as Tesla’s pivot point for its core car business,” Niedermeyer said. But unlike a few years ago, American consumers can now consider a wide array of quality EVs produced by Tesla competitors, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Car and Driver’s 2024 EV of the year.
With Tesla’s fundamentals looking shaky, the company’s elevated stock price becomes increasingly dependent on the belief that Musk the magician can deliver wildly creative new products. That image is fading. Last year, Tesla rented Warner Bros. Studios, in Burbank, California, to unveil the “Cybercab,” a vehicle that, according to Musk, will begin offering robotaxi service in Austin this summer. The market response to the Cybercab has been tepid; many observers noted that the company’s CEO has consistently failed to meet previous deadlines to deliver self-driving technology, and that Waymo, which already offers robotaxi service in several cities, seems far ahead.
To summarize, even before Musk alienated millions of people with his Nazi salute and DOGE-enabled federal rampage, the two engines behind Tesla’s steep valuations were sputtering: Its car business was looking shaky and its product pipeline appeared weak. Still, Musk’s alliance with Trump seems to have persuaded Wall Street to ignore these developments; Tesla stock jumped 60 percent in the two months following Trump’s election.
That rise has masked underlying vulnerability. Given the expectations of searing growth baked into Tesla’s sky-high valuation, even a modest consumer revolt could cause it to plummet. Consider: If Tesla’s price-to-earnings ratio fell from 181 to 50—a figure still at least eight times as high as Toyota’s or Ford’s—its stock price would tumble 70 percent.
Things might already be headed in that direction. In Europe, Tesla’s January sales collapsed by at least 40 percent in countries including France, Spain, Norway, and Germany. Musk’s sullied reputation appears to be a factor: A pollster found a double-digit surge in Swedes expressing a negative view of Tesla following Trump’s inauguration, at which Musk was widely condemned for giving a Hitler salute. As the drop in European revenue raised eyebrows last week, Tesla stock shed 6 percent of its value, and it dropped a further 8 percent over the past two days.
American sales figures are still trickling in, but Tesla has cause to worry in its home market too. In California, a left-leaning state with the largest EV market in the nation, Tesla sales fell 8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.
A North American sales collapse would be a disaster for Tesla shareholders, starting with Musk himself, who owns around 13 percent of the company. “Musk’s stake in Tesla is partly pledged for loans that he depends on for cash,” Niedermeyer said. If the value of his Tesla stock falls, lenders could force Musk to sell additional shares. Many Tesla investors (and his fan base) may see that as a vote of no confidence in the company’s future, prompting them to sell shares—triggering a full-on Wall Street rout, with Tesla’s stock crashing in value.
What does this mean for people outraged by Musk’s recent behavior? Take it out on Tesla by boycotting the company. Any further dip in Tesla sales would amplify growing calls for Musk’s ouster as CEO. Whatever time Musk spends doing damage control is time not spent dismantling federal agencies or elevating Europe’s far right. If you were considering buying a Tesla, don’t. If you’re renting a car, choose another brand. And if you own a Tesla, sell it. Yes, that would help: A deluge of used Teslas would lower their resale value, further depressing the new-car sales that the company depends upon.
For years, Tesla has capitalized on Musk’s showmanship and celebrity to obtain an eye-watering market valuation. Now that Musk is wreaking havoc on America, it’s rational that people direct their fury at the car company whose identity is inextricably linked to his own.
Happily, today’s car buyers can find plenty of quality electric vehicles built by companies whose CEOs have neither destroyed a federal agency nor endorsed extremism. If you’re in the market for an EV, buy one of those.
