In late February, Culver City resident David Andreone posted a photo of his black Model 3 Tesla on Facebook and Instagram and offered it for sale for $35,000. Though the posts received dozens of comments, no buyers emerged.
Andreone, 59, said he loves driving the car, but made the decision to sell after the brand’s association with founder Elon Musk became too much to bear.
Musk, widely regarded as an eccentric visionary who popularized electric vehicles, has occupied a prominent position in the Trump administration as the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, since January.
Once a champion of climate change activism, Musk now represents President Trump’s agenda, including efforts to downsize the federal government and roll back environmental protections.
“I have never in my life bought or leased a car for political reasons,” Andreone said. “Now I feel like I want to get rid of one for political reasons. I’m just kind of shocked and appalled at what he’s doing.”
While Andreone is selling his vehicle, countless other Tesla drivers are wrestling with what the cars stand for and if they want to be connected with the brand. Some are embarrassed or ashamed by the association with Musk, they said, and several have slapped on bumper stickers that let people know they purchased the car before Musk took on his new public role.
Though Musk and Tesla still dominate the electric vehicle market, the backlash against Musk’s conservative politics could be contributing to Tesla’s plunging stock price and falling resale values, especially in liberal-leaning California, industry experts said.
Tesla stock has dropped 26% over the last month and has fallen 35% year to date, reflecting concerns among some investors that Musk is not spending enough time tending to his highest-profile business.
The protests come at a pivotal time for Tesla, which was already facing a slowdown in its business.
Vehicle sales declined for the first time in the company’s history last year, the company reported in January. Deliveries fell to 1.79 million, representing a drop of 1.1% from 1.81 million vehicles in 2023, a decline that analysts attributed to a lack of new models in an increasingly competitive market for electric vehicles.
Profits rose 3% to 73 cents a share in the fourth quarter (excluding one-time items), below the 77 cents a share that analysts had estimated.
Though it is based in Austin, Texas, Tesla retains significant ties to California, with a large manufacturing plant in Fremont.
A Tesla representative did not respond to requests for comment.
In an effort to boost Tesla’s popularity among his supporters, Trump publicly purchased a new red Model S on the White House lawn earlier this week. It was a show of loyalty to Musk that will certainly earn Tesla some fans on the right side of the political spectrum, according to experts, but is sure to alienate others. The endorsement boosted Tesla shares, which surged 8% on Wednesday to close at $248.09.
“The question is, is Musk gaining more people than he’s losing?” asked Karl Brauer, an analyst at iseecars.com. Resale prices for used Teslas could suggest there is drastically falling demand for the vehicles, he said.
In February, Tesla topped the list of brands that lost the most resale value year over year, followed by Maserati and Chrysler, according to data provided by Brauer. The price of a used Tesla Model S and Model Y each dropped by about 16% from February 2024 to February 2025. The price of a used Model 3 dropped 13.5% over the same period.
“Price is a reflection of supply and demand,” Brauer said. “So it could be that nobody wants to buy them anymore, or that there’s a massive influx of them available, or both.”
Amid the investor worries, opponents of Trump have been organizing against Musk and his car company, holding protests across the country to encourage people to get rid of their Teslas and denounce Musk. Others have taken out their frustration by vandalising or destroying the electric vehicles and their charging stations.
In San Francisco, fliers posted around the city feature a photo of Elon Musk allegedly performing a Nazi salute and advise readers to “sell your swasticar.”
Musk dismissed accusations that the salute was a Nazi-era gesture and blamed the liberal news media for misconstruing his actions.
While political activism against a vehicle brand isn’t common, Brauer said, it has happened before. In the mid-2000s, as awareness of climate change rose, many began protesting large gas-guzzling vehicles such as Hummers by throwing eggs at them.
Musk has other ventures apart from electric vehicles, including spacecraft maker SpaceX, internet service provider Starlink and neurotechnology company Neuralink. But his conservative image is most closely tied to Teslas, and the cars have become inseparable from his personal brand.
“Musk is going to have to do a better job of balancing his DOGE and Trump responsibilities versus being chief executive of Tesla,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities who has a buy rating on Tesla stock. “When you’re so synonymous with a brand, it’s a careful balance and it’s almost reached a tipping point.”
Ives estimated that less than 5% of Tesla owners would be dissuaded from buying another Tesla because of Musk’s political actions. But the poor reputation could hurt the company’s bottom line, he said.
“When you’re selling a mass market vehicle and you take a political affiliation like this, there’s a downside to it,” Ives said.
Already Musk has lost favor with many customers he once appealed to, including Tesla driver Dan Bateman, 75.
Bateman, a retired Diamond Bar resident who has driven a Tesla for five years, said he’s no longer happy with the image the car portrays. He identifies politically as center-left and wanted an electric vehicle to help get gas cars off the road, he said.
“My original statement was that I’m doing my small part toward ending climate change,” Bateman said. “There wouldn’t be electric cars on the road without Elon and it seems like he’s turned his back on that. I feel like I’ve been betrayed.”
Bateman doesn’t plan to sell his Tesla, but he did put on a bumper sticker that reads, “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.”
Several similar bumper stickers are available online for Tesla drivers who want to show their disapproval. “This is my last Tesla,” one of them says.
Bateman said he’s frustrated by Elon’s actions, but the resale value of his car has plummeted too much to make sense to sell. He purchased it for about $90,000, he said, and estimates it’s now worth $13,000.
“I can’t afford to scrap it,” he said. “I just feel so disappointed by him.”
Tesla has been the most prominent option among electric vehicles for years and was once the only mainstream option, said Sam Abuelsamid from the transportation technology company Telemetry Insights. Early EV adopters who were passionate about the climate change aspect were likely drawn to the brand, he said.
“People who buy EVs have been somewhat more left-leaning politically,” Abuelsamid said. “They’re generally more inclined to believe that climate change is an issue and that we need to do something about it.”
Like Bateman, many Tesla drivers feel that Musk has lost sight of the mission that attracted them to the vehicles in the first place, he said.
“As they’ve seen Musk show his true colors of his personal politics and his personal attitudes, they have decided that this is not someone that they want to support with their dollars,” Abuelsamid said.
Musk’s public persona is creating problems for all Tesla drivers, not just those who oppose DOGE and the Trump administration. A Cybertruck driver, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, said someone recently left a crude message drawn in dust on his vehicle.
The 44-year-old Ventura County resident ordered his Cybertruck in 2019, just days after preorders became available. He received it last September and said he never had political motivations for making the $130,000 purchase.
“Musk is going to do what he wants and what he thinks is right and I’m not necessarily judging him for that,” the Cybertruck driver said. “But he is alienating a big portion of consumers and potentially resulting in backlash against existing customers.”
He worries about his truck being damaged when he leaves it parked for long periods, but he doesn’t feel ashamed to drive it around.
“I didn’t buy it as a political symbol,” he said. “It’s not like I have political things on the truck or anything like that. So why should I feel embarrassed?”
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