I’m a liberal Jew. Count me out of the Tesla boycott

Senior Columnist
Rob Eshman
March 13, 2025

To the woman who left a letter at my doorstep demanding I stop driving a “Nazi car”: Sorry, but I’m keeping my Tesla.

To my dear neighbors on either end of the street who asked me how I could drive a car that profits Elon Musk: Yes, I’m keeping my Tesla.

To all the people who slap swastikas on random Teslas, go ahead and try it: I have a bucket of warm, soapy water at the ready. To my friends who have sent me links to articles on the worldwide Tesla boycott — which could be one reason why U.S. Tesla sales fell 7% in 2024 even as electric vehicle industry sales increased 25%, and why Tesla stock has plunged 47% since December — I get it. But I’m not changing my mind. Not even after President Donald Trump turned the White House into a Tesla showroom on Wednesday in an effort to get his followers to buy the cars — after spending three campaigns deriding EVs.

I think there’s better ways to register my opposition to what Musk is doing. And I do oppose him. But I believe that in order to be effective, “the Resistance” needs to cool it on performative ideological litmus tests — like, say, protesting Trump’s address to Congress last week by holding up sad little signs and dressing in pink — and put forth actual better ideas for improving the lives of all Americans. The best way to fight Musk’s wrecking ball approach is to create more efficient, sustainable and affordable communities under Democratic control. Show, don’t tell.

There are plenty of reasons to hate Musk. It’s not just the pseudo-Nazi salute he displayed amid inauguration festivities, or the fact that his Department of Government Efficiency has wreaked havoc on government efficiency and destroyed services that are, as in the case of USAID and PEPFAR, life-saving. He remains the largest single private donor to President Donald Trump, whose executive actions are stress-testing democracy. He’s also reinstated neo-Nazis, misogynists, transphobes and attention-seeking antisemites like Kanye West , now known as Ye, and Jake Shields back to X, the social media platform he owns.

But when it comes to building a sustainable future? That’s complicated. My personal politics have long compelled me to buy and support EVs. I owned one of the first Nissan Leafs sold in California, even when it meant an hour drive to pick my kids up at Jewish summer camp took three hours, including recharging. Those were the pioneer days of electric vehicles, kids, when just to eke out 65 miles of range between charges meant driving in August triple-digit heat with no air-conditioning.

Ok, yes, part of why my EV today is a Tesla is because I leased my Tesla Model Y in April 2024, long before Musk went MAGA, let alone full DOGE. In March 2024, while I was car shopping, Musk declared he would not donate to either candidate. Oops. And I have two years left on my lease, meaning the buyout and early termination fees would be a very costly political statement — even more so since Trump’s chaos-economy has tanked the Dow.

But I also think it’s worth separating the politics of Tesla from the politics of its owner. Yes, Musk benefits from every Tesla sold. But how about the rest of us?

Tesla changed everything. It created a car that non-EV diehards wanted. By creating a great car owning experience, it incentivized an EV revolution, prompting massive improvements in EV infrastructure that have made my struggles as an early Leaf owner a thing of the distant past. Without Tesla, the truth is, paving the way to a future in which climate change isn’t further accelerated by fossil fuels consumed by personal cars would be much, much harder.

“Tesla restarted the electric vehicle revolution,” Martin Eberhard, who, along with Marc Tarpenning, founded Tesla in 2003, said in a CNBC interview. “Without Tesla, there would not be electric cars today.”

Musk bought into Tesla in 2004, pushing the founders out by 2008. Tesla sold 147 cars in 2008, the year he became chairman. In 2024 it sold 1.79 million vehicles. In 2023, the Model Y, which I drive, was the world’s best-selling vehicle, period.

That works out to approximately 6.27 million metric tons of CO₂ saved annually. If the world operated on Tesla Powerwalls hooked to Tesla Solar panels, those savings would go up to 8.2 million metric tons per year — about what 373 million trees, or 4,000 Central Parks worth of trees, absorb in a year.

I get why everyone around me is eager to stop contributing to Musk’s already unfathomable wealth. But he’s the richest man on earth. Yes, his net worth has fallen since Trump took office — after skyrocketing post-election — but it’s still near the $400 billion mark. Realistically, no boycott on earth is going to make a material enough change in his portfolio to push him to switch course. Remember, X — formerly Twitter — has depreciated by close to 80% since Musk purchased it in 2022. If that loss has in any way prompted Musk to think twice about the consequences of his political actions, well, I haven’t seen the evidence.

And what about the engineers, designers, even the really nice Tesla service dude who just installed my car’s optional HEPA filter? Do they deserve to be rewarded for their earth-saving work?

I think yes. I understand not everyone agrees with me. “Won’t you please consider getting rid of your Tesla vehicle,” read that letter dropped at our doorstep last week. “The message you are sending at this point is, ‘I am a Nazi too.’”

At least one other Tesla owner on our block got the same letter, which suspiciously carries a non-existent return address. I’m not sure who is behind the ingenious PR campaign of getting your neighbors to change by calling them Nazis, but I have questions:

If you drive any gas-powered car, aren’t you sending dollars to autocratic petro-states and oil companies who are drill-baby-drilling us toward climate disaster?

If you buy anything made in China, aren’t you helping fund a regime that is enslaving the Uyghurs, destroying Tibetan culture, threatening Taiwanese independence and sending political protesters to gulags?

Do you know the politics of every CEO of every company you buy from, and choose accordingly? Have you checked in on Amazon’s Jeff Bezos lately as he neuters The Washington Post?

That’s not to say I won’t fight against DOGE, X and Musk’s overreach elsewhere, through my journalism, my vote, shareholder activism, and standing side-by-side with unnecessarily fired workers. My wonderful neighbors and I, meanwhile, worked out a simple solution: I got one of those bumper stickers that reads, “I Bought This Before Elon Went Crazy.” (And yes, I bought it on Amazon).

As for Musk, I ask him to consider the trajectory he’s on. Even unlimited wealth can’t buy you a good name. And neither can doing Donald Trump’s bidding. Just ask Rudy Giuliani.

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