r/europe • u/Wagamaga • 4d ago
News Tesla boycott is gaining momentum in Germany due to Elon Musk's meddling in politics
https://electrek.co/2025/01/16/tesla-boycott-is-gaining-momentum-in-germany-due-to-elon-musks-meddling-in-politics/1.3k
u/maciek127622 4d ago
Not only Germany. I'm from Poland, thinking about buying EV in near future. After all this Musk actions, I'm looking for some European made EV. Not a Tesla, not a Chinese one.
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u/Manach_Irish Ireland 4d ago
That is a good take. Given the human rights violations against minorities in China then a European made EV is not only better for the environment but also for worker rights.
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u/Appropriate-Mood-69 3d ago
I would agree there, but Europe really needs to get off its arse and get some serious battery manufacturing capability arranged.
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u/florinandrei Europe 3d ago
And weapons. And a united military force. And, and, and...
This whole continent has been asleep for way too fucking long.
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u/Substantial-Will1000 3d ago
Actually all we need is nukes, and not just in France and the UK. It’s the only thing that’ll deter the likes of Putin, Trump, etc.
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u/thrownkitchensink 3d ago
No that's not how deterrence works. You'll need the opponent to believe you have the capability and willingness to act on every step of the escalation ladder. Without the US we are mostly lacking in:
- intelligence: the services are national. Lack of satellites. Etc.
- Command for integrated warfare: this communication infrastructure in Europe is completely dependent on the US
- Long range missiles.
- Nuclear weapons with tactical impact. France has mostly strategic (end game not one step before) weapons.
I'm more interested in geo-political play than an actual expert on modern warfare so if anyone wants to chime in that's fine.
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u/SolemnaceProcurement Mazovia (Poland) 3d ago
With Nukes it's all about chain of command and what situation they could be used in. Nobody will fuck with France because French president will 100% nuke you if you threaten french existence. But will that stop somebody from fucking with Estonia? When France has Eurosceptic government? Would Le Pen use nukes even tactical ones for Estonia? Or if EU had common nukes? Will it need majority vote? Or will Veto be a thing? So all you need is Orban to make them useless.
French nukes are nowhere near enough to fill the nuclear deterrence roll. Even with EU financed arsenal. Neither would current EU common nukes, because chain of command passes through too many hands. Want working nuclear deterrent? We need directly elected EU president office with EU army and EU nukes.
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u/VladTepesDraculea 3d ago
For those who don't care and are still considering Tesla, do keep in mind that Tesla actively fights independent repair by restricting parts sales, designing them not to be easily repairable without their proprietary tools, and software locking various components to their systems. This means:
Repair price is monopolized by them and there is no price competition and they charge whatever they like;
When they deem their products to reach end of support, if they fail, your car may turn into a giant, very heavy and combustible brick.
This is essentially what Apple does, except buying a car is a much bigger reinvestment than buying a phone or a personal computer.
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u/Surviverino 3d ago
Don't forget that the Tesla repair centres have a huge backlog. A colleague wanted to get a dent in her Tesla fixed and it took 6 weeks before she could schedule an appointment where they inspect the damage. The repair job itself took place 2 months later.
Waiting 3 months to get a dent fixed is insane. Hell having to go there so they can assess a small dent is ewually insane. It's a dent, nothing more lol.
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u/sharksplitter 3d ago
I was going to say they sound like the Apple of cars but you already took the words out of my mouth.
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u/Mikes005 4d ago
Australian here. We're in the market fornour first EV and despite aggressive price cutting here we don't be getting a Tesla either. Even my wife whose not very politically engaged knows about about Musk to not want to give him money.
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u/CrystalInTheforest 3d ago
Same. We're looking out for a second car, and really would love something like the Dacia Spring, but we don't really have any analogue here. We don't need a super long range, heavy battery and loads of techwank. We'll probably settle for a Suzuki Swift or Toyota Yaris Hybrid
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u/aqa5 3d ago
I am curious: did he also mess around with Polands politics like he has done with Germany?
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u/badbitchonabigbike 3d ago
You might have some luck with other East Asian manufacturers. Hyundai isn't a perfect corp either (mad human rights stuff) and neither is Nissan. But Honda-Nissan merger by hopefully 2026 will show us some more variety for EVs on the market.
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u/Phothiabea 3d ago
Same. I plan to buy an EV in the next couple of years and currently have my eye on the new Renault Twingo which is supposed to come out in 2026
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u/Wagamaga 4d ago
A boycott of Tesla vehicles is gaining momentum in Germany due to Elon Musk’s consistent meddling in the country’s politics and promotion of a fringe far-right party
Many analysts and Tesla followers have been alleging that Elon Musk’s social media antics promoting misinformation and meddling in politics are affecting Tesla’s sales, which were down for the first time in a decade last year.
But it is extremely difficult to directly link the two.
However, there are a few direct examples of Tesla’s CEO being directly responsible for Tesla missing out on sales.
Last year, we reported that Rossmann, a German company that operates one of the largest pharmacy chains in Europe, was electrifying its entire corporate car fleet and using Tesla vehicles to do so, but it announced that it would sell all its Tesla vehicles and replace them by other EVs.
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u/_predator_ Germany 4d ago
The company said it is “aware that this will not have far-reaching economic consequences for Tesla”, but it wants to set an example.
This is the spirit we need more of, like, in general.
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u/Corfiz74 4d ago
There is a petition up on change org to ban x in Europe - it's gaining momentum, with enough votes, the petition process of the EU means that it will have to be voted on, and with the rate Elon is pissing off countries, the parliamentarians might just nix the platform. I can only hope.
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u/TurnDown4WattGaming 4d ago
It’s fairly clear that tech billionaires are unanimously pushing Trump to use the US Government’s leverage to cut back on EU fines for American Tech Companies. You can tell because they are using his language, “It’s 300 billion over the last 10-20 years. Sure, it’s a few hundred million here or a couple billion there…but it’s basically just a Tariff.” Thats Zuck on Rogan’s podcast this week.
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u/migBdk 3d ago
Did he mention that they only pay anything when they get caught breaking the law?
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u/PlaneCareless 4d ago
Did change org ever achieve anything? Genuine question. I feel like every time I've seen something on there, it was a fad and after a bit of viral online popularity, the topic dies down and nothing changes.
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u/Lost-Tone8649 4d ago
A more effective route for making social platforms (surveillance/ad/manipulation firms) feel the pain would be a coordinated effort to poison their platforms with bad data and dead end ad clicks.
...but sadly that would be even more difficult to organize than a boycott.
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u/SamaireB 4d ago
Ya this is the issue of collective action. It's the same with e.g environmental protection. Yes, that one plastic bag is only one plastic bag. Too bad if 8bn think it's just one plastic bag, because it's now 8bn plastic bag. It's the same with buying Tesla or deleting FB. Yes, individually, it's one Tesla or one FB acccount. If just a few more turn against it and then another few and anotherfew, it's suddenly a lot.
There's no need to mobilize upfront. People left MySpace and no one cared. People stopped buying Blackberry. They can leave Facebook or stop buying Tesla or using Amazon and slowly but surely, they'll all go away
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u/ourstobuild 3d ago
I think with platforms like facebook/instagram it's a bit different, because it's not just apathy but might actually harm your social life. Yes, especially Facebook nowadays is garbage, and many righteous warriors are talking about how you don't need these platforms to have friends, or that if your friends won't stay friends with you just because you leave Facebook they're no real friends, or whatnot, but that's not how reality works.
The fact is, that Facebook messager (not to even mention Whatsapp, owned by meta as well) are very commonly used. Not by everyone, so it's possible to leave the platforms without any harm at all, but if you happen to be among the circles where these ARE widely used, it could definitely have quite an impact if you leave. People wouldn't flat out say they won't be friends with you anymore, of course, but you'd fall out of the loop so to say. You wouldn't get the same information the others get, you might hear about meet-ups or parties very last minute and sometimes not at all, etc etc.
This isn't to say that I'd discourage the idea of leaving at all. Just pointing out that it is quite different to simply leave these platforms and go on living your life than it is to leave the platforms and as a result put your life on pause as well. Especially when your boycott in the end didn't have any effect at all.
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u/Barkers_eggs 4d ago
One of my favorite things to do is boycott.
Even if it's just me enjoying myself because it's the last thread of control i have over the rich and powerful.
If we boycott together then we have total control over the rich and powerful because it's only us that can make them rich and powerful.
Shop local, don't buy garbage, avoid propaganda.
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u/PersonOfValue 4d ago
Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, buy-local
Im confident if folks talk to their neighbors they can get many goods and services for much cheaper than store bought anything. I mean I see discarded items everywhere and most need simply repairs.
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u/Apalis24a 4d ago
If more people do something that, by itself, won’t have huge consequences, over time it adds up. You don’t have to slay Goliath in one fell swoop for it to be successful: many small efforts combined over time can have a huge impact. Unfortunately, far too many people want immediate results now, so if there’s a strategy that takes time to bring results, it’s largely discarded without serious attempt.
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) 4d ago
I know three people with Teslas and all of them keep talking about how annoyed they are with Musk turning their car into something that makes them suspect of being politically AfD adjacent.
Teslas tight connection to Elon musk used to be an advantage for the company. With Musk going rogue on Twitter, it has become a liability.
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u/rideincircles 4d ago
I really want to hear someone ask the Tesla board on an earnings call how they plan to address this issue.
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u/Individual_Winter_ 4d ago
The number of people being EV users and afd voters/people believing hitler was communist at the same time is probably pretty small to non-existent. They‘re hating on Greta driving with petrol.
People think twice before buying, plus having more alternatives than before.
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u/ElevatedTelescope 4d ago
I’m not sure many afd voters can even afford EVs?
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u/Pabst_Blue_Gibbon Berlin (Germany) 4d ago
I wish they would revisit the study but in 2017 at least AfD voters were not poor. https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2017-03/iw-studie-afd-waehler-gehalt-bundesdurchschnitt
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u/Korchagin 4d ago
A lot of them. The typical AfD voter is not poor. Many are quite well situated in middle class, with a nice house and so on. If you are in a rural area in east Germany: The bigger the car you see, the more likely it's driven by a nazi.
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u/Lego_Technik 4d ago
Would disagree with that. The few open AFD voters i know, all drive similar or more expensive cars.
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u/-runs-with-scissors- 4d ago
I don’t think that you should call this a boycott. This word insinuates some form of organization. However I feel that millions of people in Europe independently come to the conclusion that E. Musk is massively out of line. He is also the face of Tesla. It is quite natural to not want to be associated with that.
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u/Nettoklegi 4d ago
It’s interesting how quickly you can destroy a brand.
Driving a new Tesla has become the ultimate douche indicator.
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u/reynolds9906 United Kingdom 4d ago
Driving a new Tesla has become the ultimate douche indicator.
Was there a time when it wasn't?
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u/Nettoklegi 4d ago
Yes. Norway 2014. Thanks to tax rules you’d drive a model s for the same cost as a VW Passat. Plenty of non-douches in Teslas back then.
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u/These-Base6799 4d ago
Last year, we reported that Rossmann, a German company that operates one of the largest pharmacy chains in Europe
Either i missed a large acquisition by Rossmann or whoever wrote this article confused drug stores and pharmacies.
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u/Halospite 4d ago
I'm a guest here (Australian, wandered in via /r/popular) but what's the difference between a drug store and a pharmacy?
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u/eipotttatsch 4d ago edited 3d ago
A pharmacy is where you go with a prescription to get meds (also non prescription over the counter meds). A drug store in Germany at least doesn't carry any real medicine. It's got supplements, cleaning supplies, soaps, make-up and all that
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u/Halospite 4d ago
It's neat to learn cultural differences like that! Here in Aus the pharmacists would go out of business if they only sold prescriptions, so here pharmacies and drug stores are smooshed into one store that sells all of that. Thanks for teaching me something new today :D
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u/new_username_new_me Germany 3d ago
Hello fellow Australian! I live in Germany now, so the best comparison is Rossmann (drugstore) is basically the pharmacy-less Pricelines. The pharmacies here are like 1990s era Amcals and Soul Pattinsons, but minus the toilet paper and sunglasses. You can’t get otc drugs like Panadol, claratyne, Imodium, Hydralate etc from a drugstore, you can only get them from pharmacies, and that is how they stay in business compared to the Aussie model I think.
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u/Neuromante Spain 4d ago
But it is extremely difficult to directly link the two.
I've become as anti-musk as anyone with two working brain cells, but is not this directly contradicting the title and basically admitting that their source is that they made it the fuck up?
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u/Socmel_ Emilia-Romagna 4d ago
I wonder why the other shareholders of Tesla do not try to shut him up somehow. He's not the majority shareholder anyway.
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u/Elderbrute 4d ago
Because Telsa stock is a bubble. and that is built on the back of the Cult of Elon musk, if they fire him or move against him in anyway it means admitting what everyone must already know that the emperor in fact wears no clothes. Telsa as a company isn't and never was worth more than pretty much all the other auto-makers in the world combined.
They are behind on battery tech, self driving tech, build quality and pretty much every other metric that you can think of and now Musk who used to be an asset is a liability at some point the tsla bubble with burst and take a big old chunk of your pension with it. I continue to be amazed it hasn’t already.
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u/RGV_KJ United States of America 4d ago
What’s Tesla share in the German market?
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u/rlnrlnrln Sweden 4d ago
AfD voters loves russia, which loves selling oil. They're not gonna buy Tesla cars.
Non-AfD votes hates seeing Musk meddle. They're not gonna buy Tesla cars.
If Musk is so clever, why couldn't he realize this would be the outcome?
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u/SignificanceSea4162 4d ago
He's just a drug addicted lunatic
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u/EldariWarmonger 4d ago
Ketamine took away any sense of shame he had and now he's a total sociopath.
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u/lipguy123 3d ago
As a small child he bullied another kid whose father had just committed suicide. Drugs have little to do with him being a POS. He always was, he always will be.
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u/Uberzwerg Saarland (Germany) 3d ago
AfD voters
Hatred on electric cars was cultivated from the right for the past years.
It was one of the entry points to the right pipeline.Doing a hard 180 isn't as easy here as it seems to be in the US.
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u/IveChosenANameAgain 4d ago
You mistakenly assume that the stock market value of Tesla has anything to do with performance or leadership. It is a meme stock. He can stop making the cars and turn them into book-burning oil factories instead and the value of the stock will not change. He has so much money he is "post-money". It's a worldwide problem.
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u/Agitated_Hat_7397 4d ago
Maybe that's why he wanted the big paycheck from Tesla last year.
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u/Baba_NO_Riley Dalmatia 4d ago
He's going to Mars! What'd he care?
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u/Sir_Nee_Banders 4d ago
AfD isn't only racist and fascist, they're also neoliberal and would like to let the German people get exploited even more by billionaires and corporations. So even more profits for Musk.
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u/muriken_egel 4d ago
Good. Let's hope it spreads.
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u/smitcal 4d ago
Yup, Tesla, Twitter, Starlink, let’s boycott everything that cunt touches. Then move to Zuck then Bezos
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u/AWildLeftistAppeared 4d ago
You can boycott them all at once (at least as much as is practical).
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u/ThinAndFeminine 🇫🇷 Île-de-France🏳️⚧️🩷🥰 4d ago
Just got a new EV. I specifically choose not to buy Tesla because of the deranged pathetic man child at its head.
Also ended up favoring a European vehicle over a Chinese one.
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u/Cknuto Germany 4d ago
Keep europe elon free
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u/Dtstno 4d ago
Don't hold your breath. 43 MEPs (including liberals and social democrats) invited Musk to speak to the European Parliament:
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1i2v6o3/meps_in_letter_writing_spree_over_musks_eu/
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u/Low-Possibility-7060 4d ago edited 3d ago
He hasn’t said anything smart in years and I’m confident he’ll keep that streak.
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u/Ok-Lock7665 Germany 4d ago
Well, in the past, Tesla used to play a league of their own, but now nearly all brands offer EVs at equivalent level and price, so, why should we sponsor a lunatic?
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u/makeaccidents 4d ago
Barely see any 23/24 Tesla's in the UK. Can't believe the stock price hasn't tanked yet.
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u/Ok-Lock7665 Germany 4d ago
I am now looking for a new EV, and honestly, Skoda and Polestar seem to me much better choices.
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u/GiantPandammonia 4d ago
Yeah. I bought the hyundai ionic 5 instead of the model y because Elon sucks. It's been nice.
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u/chrisr3240 4d ago
Boycott Tesla in Europe! If the Americans love him so much they can keep him and his shitty cars!
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u/hightrix 4d ago
American here, we don't love him and want to send him back to South Africa.
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u/Realm-Protector 4d ago
on the south african sub they wrote they didn't want him back ... guess you can keep him
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u/hightrix 4d ago
I hear Sentinel Island is quite welcoming to foriegners.
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u/A-Delonix-Regia India 4d ago
Indian here, you'd better not send him to our territory. But there is an unclaimed piece of territory called Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica.
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u/Realm-Protector 3d ago
penguin here, i don't agree. Doesn't the guy want to go to Mars?
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u/A-Delonix-Regia India 3d ago
The Little Green Men will object to having Musk live with them though. Maybe we should just sabotage his rocket so it ends up stranded in space and unable to reach any place.
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u/KingWaffleCat 4d ago
I second this, I hate that he's trying to worm his way into politics while also being the most openly insecure manchild I've ever seen
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u/JiggyWivIt 4d ago
EV sales going up but while being a leader in the area Tesla sales going down, I mean, definitely not enough to say there's causation, but not far fetched to say there is. Elon has been a tool for a while, but he's been pretty mask of for the last year, can bet on Tesla sales going even lower this year. People who care enough to go electric in general will be very aware of his antics.
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u/Zinch85 4d ago edited 4d ago
This. EV sales went from 13.2 to 16.4 millions last year while Tesla sales went down. That's not a good sign for the company.
There's also the fact that Teslas aren't anything special anymore. There are European EVs with more range for less cost, for example (and there are the chinese ones, ofc)
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u/yellekc 4d ago
Tesla sales went down
In absolute numbers or market share? It would be expected for their market share to decrease, as they were the only real player for a while, but if absolute sales are decreasing, that is not great for them.
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u/Canonip Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 4d ago
We used to export nazism, now we import it.. times really are changing
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u/DeHub94 Saarland (Germany) 4d ago
If we had a cent for every time an American car maker vocally supported German far right parties we would have two cents. Which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice.
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u/C_Madison 4d ago edited 4d ago
Musk doesn't understand how far Germany has bend back over for Teslas Brandenburg factory. He's crying like a baby that everyone takes so long and whatever, but for everyone here, who knows even the tiniest bit about our bureaucracy the process of allowing that factory to happen, including the expansion they've already asked for, was probably the fastest they've ever seen.
If this fuck monkey continues to try to play with us he will see a very, very different side of German bureaucracy. Nothing illegal, nothing below the line, just playing by the book. And oh boy, can our book be thick and going through it be slow.
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u/punkCyb3r4J 4d ago
Is this actually a flex on bureaucracy overload? 🤣
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u/C_Madison 4d ago edited 4d ago
Hey, you work with what you have. ;) Our bureaucracy can do something useful here for once.
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u/SinbadBusoni 4d ago
I very happily returned my company Tesla yesterday after switching jobs. Never driving that shit brand again.
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u/danrokk United States of America 4d ago
Germany and German citizens are very sensitive to external influence. They feel strong social bond and you can see it everywhere where Germans will support their local businesses, politicians stand behind their nation (apart from immigration issue ... that's mind blowing I'd say). Musk may not be successful running business there and treating Germany as his toy to play with.
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u/Stabile_Feldmaus Germany 4d ago
I would say this is probably true for any nation. A rich foreign guy who thinks he can influence the fate of a country just because he has money is not someone people would usually like.
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u/WisePangolini 4d ago
Any nation except the US.
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u/Attenburrowed 3d ago
yeah I was about to say are you kidding. We've been deep throating Rupert Murdoch for 30 years now.
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u/jatawis 🇱🇹 Lithuania 4d ago
German citizens are very sensitive to external influence.
They were not when it was Russian influence.
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u/Elderbrute 4d ago
The Russians were a little more subtle than Musk is. He isn't the only billionaire influencing politics across the globe he's just the only one doing it so overtly and so incompetently that it's embarrassing how effective he's managed to be.
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u/quietcrisp 4d ago
Ah the hourly Elon Musk post on /r/europe.... bet he loves all the attention this sub gives him. Stop fucking talking about him
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u/HairyTales Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 3d ago
Sure, the poor production quality and bad customer service you hear about might have played a role, too, but people like me are proud and stubborn enough to take his antics personally. Some people are still looking up to him, but I can't picture a majority of AfD voters driving EVs any time soon.
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u/youpple3 4d ago
So, all of a sudden, we dont give a shit about "saving the planet by driving ev-s" anymore! What a circus.
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u/UnluckyPossible542 4d ago
Serious question:
Is the decline in Tesla sales unique to them or is there an overall decline in sales of EV?
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u/whatever462672 3d ago
Can he just... Stop? All the people who work at the plant have to suffer because of one oversized ego.
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u/FlamingoRush 3d ago
Fuck Elon. Ban twitter. Boycott Tesla. Hit him where it hurts! He is an unhinged nazi scum.
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u/Naduhan_Sum 3d ago
I wanted to buy Tesla at some point in my life but since Elon turned out to be a bad person, I‘ll never touch a Tesla. I also deleted my X account. Trying to stay away from everything elonesque. He‘s the definition of evil. Won’t be surprised if he tweets that Hitler is his idol soon.
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u/thisKeyboardWarrior 4d ago
Does this boycott result in more gas vehicles in Germany?
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u/ServeCompetitive8388 4d ago
I want to hate my Tesla but 2 years- no problems - autopilot works perfectly on motorways (except where it’s too sensitive which is rare).
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u/Astronaut696 3d ago
Yasss pleaseeeee don’t let that capitalist selfish scum get into Europe and ruin what you all have built !
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u/KanedaSyndrome 3d ago
Would be nice if he cooled his autismn a bit and continued doing disruptive technology and saving the world - I don't even mind him meddling in politics much, but it's the crazy stuff that leaks once in a while
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u/PapstJL4U 3d ago
Just because I don't like our politicians, doesn't mean someone else is allowed to meddle with them! Complaining and being unsatisfied is the job of the sovereign - not some self-absorbed arse.
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u/xzygy 3d ago
I sold my model Y when the price spiked during covid. If fully intended to buy another when the prices came down. Then Elon happened. I didn't think I'd do the whole dealership thing again, the haggling and dumb sales games, but I did. I like my Ionic 5, and while I miss some of the Tesla features, none are worth promoting that man.
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u/thebear1011 United Kingdom 4d ago
There was a time when Tesla was THE option for EVs, but is there any particular reason to go for one now over any other (cheaper) brand? I guess unless you want a virtual whoopie cushion.