Nobody Wants a Nazi Electric Car

I believe this is the part where we get sued for not buying his cars.

Don't give him any ideas!
- I'm sure he already calls his lawyers every day at 3 AM while half blitzed on K to pitch exactly that
I think he would be relieved to get rid of Tesla if someone would buy it. The full self-driving promise was always a matter of interpretation, and the cars they build are more expensive symbols of status than practical products. Tesla can’t compete with global EV manufacturers, that’s a Damocles sword waiting to fall.
SpaceX is where the money is now, and all the electric innovation Tesla did can be used for something else.
- The full self-driving promise was always a matter of interpretation
  There's nothing to interpret. It does not fully drive itself.
- Musk is getting $8 million each day from the US government to destroy the US government. He was given $44 billion to destroy Twitter. He's not worried about money.

Nobody at Tesla headquarters voted to alienate their customer base. No board meeting decided to turn their electric car company into a political lightning rod.

This is technically not true. The board keeps Elon Musk on as CEO of Tesla, and they granted him the biggest bonus package ever, while he was already very controversial and clearly was losing his mind, because they thought he would be able to make them money.

You're right, that's not just technically untrue. The board voted with their wallet, by giving him even more money than ever, so he could continue doing what he is doing. The people on the board wouldn't give a shit if only Nazis buy their cars, as long as there's enough of them to keep buying.
- Well joke's on them though, because it seems Musk has found a way to tap US citizens directly, so he probably doesn't even care much about Tesla anymore now that it is failing.
You are 100% correct. They knowingly doubled down on him. They can all ride his coattails straight to hell.

About a week ago I saw a brand new model Y (still had the 90 day temporary plate) sporting one of those "bought before elon..." stickers.

Elon has always been a terrible person, but he was once focused on things that society actually needed, like electrifying transportation to avoid climate collapse.
He seems to have gone sharply downhill into total insanity by taking ketamine while locking himself in a rightwing echo chamber. It’s the perfect storm of dissociating from reality.
- Potential ketamine addiction aside, he's just gravitated toward where he sees more money and unfluence for himself. He wanted the prestige of being a leader in tech, so he used his influence and money to build SpaceX. Then he bullied his way into the ownership of Tesla, desperately wanting to appear as a genius to libertarian and liberal minds alike, but he's never been any less of an authoritarian. When Trump rose to power the first time, he sat and watched and along with the rest of the Silicon Valley Moguls, he began to move himself into positions of influence with populist politicians, borrowing the evangelical right's playbooks and throwing himself into the spotlight no matter the reason. He pivoted off his falsified image as some kind of American self-starter into MAGA rhetoric.
  Musk doesn't have lofty ideals or any real focus on the betterment of society. I don't think he ever did. He just wanted to be a real life Tony Stark and command the influence that came with it. Now he doesn't need to, because he's got Trump in his back pocket and is mostly untouchable by any normal means.
- Elon has always been a terrible person
  The problem with Elon is he's been provably an idiot for the past 25 years.
  The first thing I ever heard about Musky is that back in 2000-ish he wanted PayPal to take their infra, throw out all the Linux/BSD in use, and move everything to Windows NT.
  Anyone who was even remotely IT adjacent in that era can come along and tell you how utterly moronic that idea is.
  Anytime I've ever heard him blather on about some stupid shit that doesn't exist except in his delusions or talk about, well, ANYTHING technical or specialized all I was ever able to think of is that he got lucky that Thiel didn't drain all of his blood and leave his corpse in a ditch.
- probably his upbringing. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
  some may turn out ok, but many people with shitty parents turn out shitty as adults.
Knowing how badly Tesla has managed their supply chain, it's possible they paid for it in 2016.
Dr Dorothy Bishop resigned from the Royal Society back in November 2024 because of Musk. Everybody knew. And being an FRS is a huge, huge deal to a British scientist.
Temporary plates could be someone moving out of state. Are you sure it was the latest model?
- They all look the same I would never be able to tell myself
Man, talk about copium.
Damn, your temp plates are 90 days? Where do you live?
- Oregon

It is mental that a man worth billions in mostly electric car companyv shares is courting people who would run their cars on coal if they could.

A man who has made his billions on being essentially a corporate welfare queen.
- Are you criticizing Musk or our government?
He sells a subscription-on-wheels. Any environment benefits are just gravy on top.

Will he really need customers much longer? I mean it seems like he can just have any government agency replace their fleet with his trash in the name of "efficiency".

He tied the financing of his loan to buy Twitter with Tesla shares, if they tank it pressures the Saudis to call in the billions they loaned him for the purchase. He'd survive, but it would embarrass him which would be funny.
Apparently a big part of Tesla's business is selling carbon credits to other automakers... Which relies on them having a certain number of EV sales. If they drop below a threshold, then they can't sell those credits anymore.
Even worse is, he can use the government to sabotage the competition, as Russia and Hungary did.
- The thing is, if this follows the Hungary script, Musk is going to become replaceable.
  He doesn't command votes like Trump does, but is rich enough to be a threat. Look up Simicska.
so we can kill government workers and important people easier? i think elon Musk funded the failed trump assassinations /j
- Pretty soon the only government workers left will be Trumpler's goons. I'm ok with them dying in swastikars.

Remember 2015? A Tesla parked in your driveway told your neighbours that you valued innovation, that you possessed an environmental conscience, that you had a stake in the future of the planet. The cars weren't perfect, but they meant something. They represented hope - for clean energy, EVs, and a world beyond fossil fuels.

This was me years go. I knew climate change was real and an imminent threat. I wanted to vote with my wallet for a cleaner future. I also wanted to strike a blow against the National Automotive Dealers Association for their regressive practices that hurt consumers and drive prices for cars higher for everyone. Buying a Tesla did those things. I charge the car on sunlight from my house. I don't have to support the petroleum industry's damage to environment and people around the world. I was proud to be doing something rather than just talking about needs for changes against climate change.

Musk doesn't get any of my money from this car. I don't pay for any of the Tesla monthly services. I'm don't want to be seen driving with a Tesla logo on the car. I'm ashamed that my good intentions funded a fascist.

There is no shame in your ownership of the vehicle based on your intentions; I would humbly assert that anger is a more appropriate reaction to the current leadership of the company that made it. If strangers judge you, that’s on them.
If I had had the means to purchase one 10+ years ago, I would have. Most people who claim they wouldn’t are not being honest with themselves or disapproved of the virtue signaling associated with them at the time.
- Oh yea, when Teslas first started appearing, I loved their whole philosophy and really wanted one.
Don't feel ashamed. You did nothing wrong. Life failed you, not the other way around.
It’s crystal clear to me that Tesla played an important role at a key time, and pivoted the industry. The technology to do so had been there for a while but they lacked the will and they needed an innovator to scare them into action. Tesla did that. However, that role is now complete. I am flabbergasted that anyone still values this stock. Even setting aside this recent downturn in sales due to their brand going necrotic, they were already overmatched by the flood of competition coming their way. If major manufacturers don’t eat Tesla’s lunch, Chinese upstarts will. They can’t survive. They won’t survive. Even their supposed software advantage on self-driving has turned out to be a fraud, and the Simpertruck is a high profile failure. I’m glad that the stock hasn’t died yet though, because the rest of the world is still completing the transition to EVs, and the death of Tesla might put a chill on that. But in a few years, yeah, Tesla will blow away on the wind like so much dust.
I came really close back then, had a deposit but canceled due to realizing I had a perfectly good old car and didn't "need" one at the time. Hindsight says I lucked out.
If I did get it, and still had it (I would, I keep cars for 10+ years), I would probably rebadge it as an indicator of my dislike for what the brand has become.
I'd actually love to see a rebadging campaign by dissatisfied owners.

A more concise headline is "Nobody wants a Swastikar"

Tesla might have to go on welfare... by having the US government buy thousands upon thousands of Teslas. 🤮

Swasticars for a fascist government. Makes sense.
- The popo using cybertrucks would really be the cherry on the techno-feudalist hellscape cake.
Problem is that Trump is on the oil companies' pay rolls. Unfortunately he's subsidizing them instead of Tesla.
https://www.theverge.com/news/617235/the-gsa-is-shutting-down-its-ev-chargers-calling-them-not-mission-critical
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/22/24349650/trump-ev-tax-credit-tariff-congress

nobody wants a defective car.

They've probably had more recalls on the cyber truck than they've had sales of the cyber truck

We all know what’s going to happen, Elon just going to get a “government contract”, where he can make it so that teslas will be the main vehicle manufacturer for government.

Fuck. What if Elon is just gonna start making weapons? Didn't he flaunt a flamethrower for his lame company years ago?
Boring*
- I hope so. Any one who signs up for trump's military deserves to burst into flames

Everyone forgets where the German cars, Henry Ford, etc came from politically.

I was looking into my first EV, and politics just didn’t weigh that much into the decision. Now, the “infotainment as a perpetual service”, that turned me off and away from Tesla. With CarPlay my car dash will never lose service, and will always be free to use with updates from Apple/Google. I can’t imagine why people would ever pay for their infotainment when CarPlay is better or equal in all cases to the alternative.

That said, if Tesla and other brands were equally weighted in my purchase decision, I’d then happily rule Tesla out based on merit.

German cars come from Carl Benz, who built the first automobile in 1885, four years before Hitlers birth.
- Not necessarily Carl Benz himself, but it has been litigated that the company had ties to the nazi regime. I’m not arguing that Mercedes was founded on Nazi values, I’m just saying there was a connection and a less than stellar history of bedfellows.
Are either Ford or Mercedes currently run by Nazis? Can the average person on the street name the CEO of either of them?
The problem with Tesla is that everyone hates the guy who has made himself the face of the company at a time when there are plenty of alternatives.
- The issue is that the alternatives generally aren’t that much better in a vacuum. Infotainment vs Tesla infotainment (removing the CarPlay merits): It’s not even close. Tesla is like 10-15 years ahead of everything else on the US market in their price range. Car manufacturers famously lock in their tech and designs something like 3 years before public release.
  Will there be meaningful software updates for your Kia EV6 in 2028? Absolutely not, no way.
  Do you want to tow anything more than 1000Kg? Good luck outside of Tesla.
  NACS? Not one single other car available yet.
  Do you want a dashcam? Rivian is the only other brand, IIRC.
  I’m not apologizing for Tesla, but it’s really painful how awful all other cars are compared to the competition.
That is an insane take to me. Elon Musk is Nazi scum and the Tesla has issues, but the infotainment system is the best you can get in any car and the main reason I haven't been able to get rid of it, ignoring the fact that literally every other non Chinese EV in the same price range in my country is objectively worse specced.
Having an extremely responsive map with satellite imagery that boots up instantly is already better than every other car out there, but it also has built-in dashcam and livestream functionality for all 4 cameras, which is a bitch to install in other cars, and it's already saved me a bunch of times.
Android Auto just plain sucks ass, disconnects constantly and a lot of newer models still require a wired connection.
Also worth noting you're not paying for the infotainment, you're paying for the cellular connection, with whatever local cellular company they are working with. In my case it's cheaper than getting a data plan directly from the cellular company and my old Hyundai didn't even have that option in my country.
- And people say lemmy doesn't have ads.

What?

Revenue [increased] 2% to $25.71 billion

Yes. Only 25.7 billion dollars. It's practically dead.

Q4 2024 was before all the overt nazi shit.
But I agree that calling it dead is premature.
2%
It's called inflation.
- Pretty sure you're focusing on the wrong number out of the two

I would like a Chinese EV, but the capitalists are enforcing protectionism.

I would too, but you have to understand why the USA is blocking these cars from coming in. The cost of these cheap EVs are not based off of supply and demand. Its not even this cheap because of effectiveness or efficiencies. Its from the CCP subsidies. The CCP wants to dump on the competition in efforts to kill off anyone making a car, then start jacking up the price after they have market share.
- My dude the US subsidizes the shit out of its electric car industry. When someone brings up "supply and demand" and just tries to pretend that the economy is exactly what they learned in their econ101 class.
  They are doing the tarrifs on Chinese EVS because (1) they can't compete on price and (2) the Chinese EVS are just a superior product.
  You're right on China though. They are just doing exactly what the US has done for decades. It's just that the US doesn't like having to actually compete with another country. So instead of actually making better and cheaper cars they instead just decide to tell the American people "nah, looks like you're just being a shit Tesla"
  The US loves to say "free market" but notice how they don't allow a free market to force their industry to actually innovate and compete.
  China is not "cheating" by subsidizing it's industry. That's literally just standard shit every government does. Thats just an excuse. America is subsidizing it's EVs too. They just have worse EVs.
- So capitalism.
- That's only half the truth though. The main reason why they're so cheap is because they manufacture everything in the supply chain themselves. Everything. They have their own mines for their resources, they make their own batteries (which they've been doing for ages), they make their own electronics, they make their own software etc. They also have a completely different mindset. For them they are rolling electrical devices with some software. They don't need the knowhow of the traditional car manufacturers. And then they bought the Audi designer along with his entire team to make the cars look good.
  Edit: I'm talking about BYD. The rest is pretty much irrelevant.

Musk chased right-wing approval, but the only thing he got was declining sales and a dying brand.

I mean he got tens of billions of dollars in increased wealth so I dunno if I'd say that.

8% drop in car sales isn't great but I think the article is overselling the idea that the company is straight up dying. (Sadly) Most people just don't make a connection between how they spend their money and the politics of the people they prop up.

Tesla is definitely dying unless they can turn this around quickly.
Surplus capacity is expensive, and I bet they are already operating at a loss. And turning around a bad reputation is hard.
Their models are dated, the cheap Tesla is cancelled, the Cybertruck is a catastrophic fiasco, and the model Y has already lost a lot of popularity, so even a new mode already said to be mostly a facelift, is unlikely to make a huge difference.
The drop in sales in January in EU is 50%, and they are losing market share in China and USA too. So I think the actual drop is higher now than 8%.
Note that for Nissan a 5% drop last year was called catastrophic!! And their survival is also questioned, and they are way bigger than Tesla.
- To your list add that new Tesla sales are also competing against an increasing number of Tesla owners who now want to divest themselves of the brand.
  More used Teslas on the market will only push down the market rates and thus profits of new Teslas even further.
It’s close to 50% drop in Europe. The EU has 500 million people. They may not know it yet but Tesla is on hospice care.
- Plus of course if the US ever does impose import fees on Europe the obvious response would be to impose import fees on Tesla's. It's a luxury item so the general public probably won't hugely care, and it will hit the only person really to blame for all of this without unnecessarily targeting other US businesses. You know, how import fees are supposed to be used
They're definitely dying in Europe. The YoY sale numbers are horrific.

One of the things that has continuously confounded me about Musk's veneration by the modern American fascist is that one of the main accomplishments they hail him as a genius for are "his" advancements in electric cars.

Which are necessitated by Global Warming.

Which they do not believe in.

And the board is probably afraid to fire him now too.

Ironically, the EV’s suck and are for commies crowd are now lauding Tesla as the best vehicle on the market

Musk aside, Tesla cars have always been pretty shoddy

It's not ironic necessarily. It's more the morons that hated EVs and Musk hated them because Trump did. Now that Trump loves them, they love them.
They're just weak-minded easily manipulated sheep who hurt when they have to think for themselves and they'd rather be told what to think.

Yet another asshole businessman with a business plan to fuck over the good name of Tesla.

Since when does being right-wing make you a Nazi?

Nazi's are far-right to the extreme, Musk and Trump are Right-Wing. Nothing more. Disagreeing with them doesn't make them Nazi's and calling them Nazi's actually says more about that persons intolerance than they think it does.

Since when does being right-wing make you a Nazi?
We all saw the nazi salute, then we saw him do it a second time just to drive the point home.
- I've seen the video of him WAVING but I haven't seen him do it a second time.
Since when doing a Nazi-salute makes you not-a-nazi?
- When you're a billionaire. Then it turns out, you're just giving your heart to the crowd. And then, when you fund and speak at Nazi party rallies overseas, you're just fighting "woke" or something. And when you agree that "Jews are doing ethnic replacement" on Twitter, you just have to take pictures at a concentration camp and you're a "friend of Israel"
  But I do enjoy when people get fired because they think they can do it too
People really hate nazis my guy so even doing shit as a joke pisses people off. Its not cute its fuckin fighting words
I'd say I hate nazis about 3000% more than republicans hate immigrants
You won't but you should watch this https://youtu.be/xDyPSKLy5E4

I just want to stop seeing a storm of them when I am on a road. I can’t seem to drive anywhere without seeing approximately 10 within a single hour.

Then explain why I see them everywhere. People are just way too late on finding out about Elons true colors

I've seen an increase in new Teslas where I live, not a decrease.

Sounds like a creepy place
- You're not wrong, it's infuriating to see more of them
Yeah but that's the logic that the climate change denies also used.
"Global warming can't be real, as it snowed yesterday"
- Fair point, I live in a red county so more is kind of expected I suppose

That's @Daojoan@mastodon.social, for those who can follow Mastodon handles. Worth following!

Well not nobody. Turns out there are some Nazis. /s

I guarantee that in a few months, mark my words, he will not be in DOGE anymore, he will pivot to the Left, and SHE will come out as trans.

I would almost willingly put money on this.

Edit: Not sure why I"m being downvoted on this, I'm not saying "Elon's bad so he must secretly be a leftist."

I'm saying he's transphobic in a "Methinks the Lady doeth protest too much way", and that he has no loyalty to anyone or anything outside of what he thinks will get him attention. So if he is rejected by the Right, he'll try to say he's "Seen the light" and go to the Left.

Why would he do that? He has the closest thing to absolute power that existed since the independance of the US, without even getting elected and he would loose everything : the non-Nazis won't forget what he did, and the Nazis won't accept him.
- Let me be more specific.
  I think he will be kicked out of DOGE because of all the controversy and Trump's own distaste for him. That between this and firing so many people who voted for Trump, Elon will become Persona Non Grata to the Right, pivot to the Left searching for some group willing to give him attention....
  And in doing so, he will finally come out as trans... and be mercilessly mocked by the Right over it.
  He will never find a group that accepts him (well her at this point), because we'll still remember all the horrible things she did.
  And sort of find herself in the same kind of limbo Caitlyn Jenner is in where Nazis hate her because she's trans, and Non-Nazis hate her because she's transphobic.
  This is how I'm convinced Elon's story will end. Just how I feel like this is going down.
Are we writing fan fiction for the government now?
I like how it follows the tradition of all fan fiction in being totally inconsistent with established personality traits.