Whichever your political persuasion, each political majority gets its day in the sun (their time in power)—and eventually the politics pendulum swings and "moves the sunshine" to the political minority. That's the whole ballgame in US politics, usually. But when it comes to the two Tesla vehicles I have owned, the pendulum I got to experience was vandalism during two recent eras of our dysfunctional national dialogue. And apparently other current Tesla owners are experiencing the same.
 |  |
 |  |
I first got into Tesla after riding in a roadster in 2008, and I bought stock figuring I would never realistically ever be able to afford one; however, I supported their stated mission of "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable transport" (and energy storage, later). That mission statement is largely missing from their web site of late, at least I can't find it anymore when I look. So much has changed since I first discovered the "mostly unknown" company in 2006. Fast-forward to 2015 and I bought I first Tesla, a Model-S 70D. In 2018 I would buy (what is presumably) my last Tesla, a Model-X 100D.
I only had the Model S for 3 years, but not long after I bought it—my car was keyed by some unknown person who left a harsh note. This was in October 2015, in an open parking lot, and the hastily scrawled note was left behind: "electric cars suck." At the time, this felt like an attack rooted in a pro-oil (or pro-Detroit) and anti-electric vehicle sentiment—a frustration expressed a lot in conservative media between 2008 and 2018, when it came to the change represented by EVs. Tesla wasn't very popular with the Big 3 and other car companies (including several that had just come through bankruptcies), and the brand was still very new. When I eventually sold my Model S, I had fixed the keying injury—but remained fascinated at how that could even happen.
Fast forward to February 2021, and again another vehicle keying—this time my Model X falling victim to the same vandalism. Captured by the car's Sentry footage, this time it was a young student (presumably—I was parked in a garage on UT Austin campus) whose face was obscured by a hoodie and mask. They acted the same as the other party several years earlier, but this time for obviously different reasons: their actions driven not by hostility to electric vehicles, but by disdain for Elon Musk and his increasingly-polarizing stances. I only say that because my Model X was then keyed a second time two years later!!
 |  |
What fascinates me is not the damage itself—I'd rather understand instead of harbor any anger or resentment. No, what fascinates me is how a single car brand has become (in two different political eras) a huge lightning rod for starkly divergent views. And though our family is down to a single Tesla, I guess I should count my lucky stars that my own experience stopped at keying. It's been a tad worse for other owners out there, or even when parked at a Service Center. My past experiences with Tesla vandalism, and the current explosion of it being visited in 2025, seems to capture something unique about our current cultural moment: the intensity of political identification, and how it attaches itself to products we consume.
Elon Musk's journey—from celebrated green-tech visionary to radical conservative backer (and apparent symbol of oligarchy)—is certainly not missed by most Americans. His reshaping of Twitter—and spending $288 million in the 2024 Presidential campaign—highlights how quickly public perceptions can swing. Musk's political controversies of the past 4 years and his current DOGE exploits have turned Tesla, a brand once synonymous with progressive innovation, into a complicated cultural symbol simultaneously embraced and rejected by opposite ends of the political spectrum.
And for owners who originally just liked the car? Let's just I might intimately understand how a German Volkswagen bug owner must have felt in late 1945. Brands inevitably carry the weight of human decisions and controversies—yet history shows that even deeply tarnished brands might eventually recover and redefine their identities.
Perhaps in time, Tesla might also find itself clear of history and political crossfire, but I feel that's a long time away (if it can happen at all). I believe Tesla can only recover once the company moves on their current CEO. Time was that JB Straubel, Martin Ebberhard, and Marc Tarpenning fostered a great drivetrain tech in the 2000s. Those were the names I heard when I discovered a company called "Tesla". You never hear those names anymore—only the one guy who ran them off and whitewashed the company history (though JB hung on for a long, long time...). Maybe for Tesla to survive, it needs to whitewash Elon Musk from its recent history.
As for me: I am moving on to another car in the future, but I will always look fondly on the era of Tesla I first knew before the 2020s. I think these were decent cars. It's kind of tragic how they got saddled with negatives of their CEO. It may not be fatal for them, but I don't see them recapturing the glory of 2012-2019.
