Protests against Tesla embody the outrage against Elon Musk’s DOGE-e behavior. But Musk doesn't seem to care. And given his position in the federal government, he may not have to. This episode was produced by Devan Schwartz, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members A burned Tesla Cybertruck being inspected after four Cybertrucks were set on fire at a storage lot Sunday night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What sparked protests against Tesla?
Hey, do you have a Tesla you want to get rid of it?
Give it to me.
Guess who's getting a Tesla? President Trump truth social today. I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American. The problem is this.
Let me start by saying I do not condone unlawful activities whatsoever.
These Tesla charging stations were intentionally set on fire.
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Chapter 2: Why are Tesla vehicles being vandalized?
Oh my gosh, a Tesla Cybertruck is on fire.
Police tell us some of the cars had offensive and hateful comments painted on them.
Seattle fire on the scene.
It's the vandals. It's also that the stock is tanking. Americans are furious at Elon Musk and they're taking it out on his autos. Coming up on Today Explained.
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Money. Oh, so it's a hustle. Yeah, it's a hustle.
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Chapter 3: How has Elon Musk's behavior affected Tesla owners?
The downdraft coming as CEO Elon Musk takes on a more prominent and polarizing role in Washington than originally thought.
It's a pretty remarkable turnaround since since last year.
OK, so that's the stock market. What's been happening to people who own Tesla's?
You have all of these people who own Teslas, and there are millions of Teslas out on the road today, many of them in the United States, who are deeply regretting their purchases because of Musk's hard right turn, his associations with the Trump Trump administration, but just more than that, right?
It's his persona, his trolling online, throwing Nazi salutes at the inauguration, denigrating DEI and trans people. And I think a lot of Tesla owners now are seeing that and are just shocked, right? Because especially if you consider the type of person that would buy a Tesla for years, it was largely it was, you know,
coastal elites liberal progressive minded people people who believed in climate change who thought that you know by buying an electric car they were decreasing their own carbon footprint and now they are are left with sort of uh this this totem to musk's hard right turn that's just sort of sitting in their driveways and i think a lot of them are are uh deeply disappointed.
Some have even started selling their vehicles. We saw, I think last month, a musician, Sheryl Crow, very publicly sold her Tesla and posted about it on Instagram.
I think Sheryl Crow either gave the car to NPR or donated the money to NPR.
Yes, that's correct.
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