Disgust at the CEO’s rightwing activism is casting a pall but conservatives are no more likely to buy EVs
US liberals have become so disgusted with Tesla since Elon Musk’s rightward turn that they are now not only far less likely to purchase the car brand but also less willing to buy any type of electric car, new research has found.
The popularity of Tesla among liberal-minded Americans has plummeted since Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and the world’s richest person, allied himself with Donald Trump and helped propel the president to election victory last year.
While liberals reported mostly positive intentions around buying an electric car in August 2023, their overall support for EVs eroded in the wake of a collapse in their opinion of Teslas, according to the new study, which polled Americans on an array of environmental actions.
I think only extremely expensive luxury models being available is keeping Americans from buying EVs. Like where are the cheap, dependable small cars, like in other countries!?
Seriously! Give me a Honda Fit sized electric hatchback that uses a modern charging standard (so not the Leaf).
I’d love an electric fit at a reasonable price point
I have a Honda Fit and it is the best car I’ve ever owned. If Honda came up with a Fit EV (again), I would probably buy it right away.
I’ve got an older (2006) Accord. I like it, but it’s 19 years old with 260k miles, and it’s just starting to have some rust issues. It’s getting to the point where repairs are almost not worth the cost. An electric Fit (or similar) might be enough for me to shell out for a new car instead of another 10+ year old car.
" For now, BYD and other Chinese EVs are virtually locked out of the US market due to tariffs."
And “safety concerns.” Some are legit but in context, are probably safer than Teslas. The Chinese EV makers just need to buy more politicians.
Yup. I hate Teslas, not EVs in general, but I also hate the pricing of them.
The theory put forth here doesn’t make a lot of sense. Are we sure left leaning people aren’t just becoming more anti-car in general?
For me, 5 years ago, buying an EV seemed like a great idea, albeit one I couldn’t really afford. But then I realized I could just reduce my driving by 90% and achieve the same benefit while saving money. So I don’t really need an EV anymore now that I barely ever drive.
I own two “EVs.” They’re bicycles.
Fuck yeah e-bikes are great.
It’s such a beautiful confluence of technologies
EVs were always a distraction from our lack of public transportation.
Also, Tesla was redesigned after Musk bought it as a company to suck up green energy subidies to sell luxury cars at a premium instead of offering any real solutions.
Uh, no? I want an EV, though I want a small one that has a light touch on the environment. It’s true that I don’t want one that’s from a Nazi wannabe, but I do want an EV that has decent range and can transport my wife and me for daily tasks. But maybe I don’t catch the attention of US EV makers because I’d rather an e-bike than an E-SUV?
The new Prius is surprisingly good looking in person. Though, if I was going EV and had the money, I like those Lucids.
They must have interviewed idiots
Build trains and bike lanes.
I’m still waiting for an EV minivan. And also ya know having the spare money which is a lot less under this admin because there’s more uncertainty in everything and less regulation against exploitation.
I just want an electric pickup. Used Rivians are around $55k on Carvana. Used Mavericks are $25k.
Slate looks interesting
I don’t think my heap is going to make it until product launch. ☹️
My beater is getting picked up Tuesday. I’m donating it as it’s more expensive to replace the cat than its worth.
He’s also turning us off in general
I would love to have an electric vehicle. But first, I’d need to live somewhere with an appropriate power outlet near a reliable parking space.
I’m an apartment dweller that is lucky to find parking in front of my own home on Friday nights (when there are always more cars than usual.) I can only imagine how many people are in the same situation. Meanwhile, with the housing situation as it is, our ability to move to affordable houses (which could provide such power outlets) dwindles more every day. In this way, creating more affordable housing could lead more people to drive electric vehicles, simply by removing the barriers currently preventing them from doing so.
Hmmm. It’s almost like multiple facets of society… intersect somehow. Like if we were to improve one aspect, it could have a ripple effect that benefits other parts. So weird, right? Who would’a thunk it.
Once again, this time everybody join in, “electric cars aren’t here to save the planet they’re here to save the car industry.”
Electric vehicles don’t really solve any of the problems that cars have. They just shift the resource and environmental problems into a different arena.
It seems to me that the most effective way of dealing with personal vehicles is to use renewable power to produce gasoline (Blue crude).
That way your gasoline is carbon neutral or even carbon negative until you burn it, can actually be kept sterile and separate and only mixed on demand so it doesn’t go bad, and never has any sulfur in it because it’s made from scratch.
It also means that all of the vehicles that currently exist can still be used which would dramatically reduce the amount of energy necessary to keep a functional fleet of vehicles and doesn’t need everything to be replaced including the infrastructure.
Peaker plants could be built to soak up all of the extra renewable power when production is so much higher than demand so there’s no need to worry about where you get the power to do this.
There are solutions out here but they require a kind of rearrangement of how we do business at almost every level.
Electric cars are so much more efficient than gas cars that I can’t see how “Blue Crude” could ever get even close in terms of emissions. Electric cars are so efficient that if you converted the size of their batteries to gallons of gas, most of them would have a tank smaller than 4 gallons. Why would we keep using such inefficient engines just to try and recapture that carbon out of the atmosphere when we could just never emit it in the first place?
Elon Musk is turning US liberals off not just Tesla but billionaires in general
FTFY
