Honk If You Hate Teslas

"I don't know that we can attribute this [that Tesla in Canada and elsewhere in the world is now faring more poorly than other EV makers] to any one factor."

"I wasn't surprised by this [the steep drop in price of used Teslas in Canada]. We also look at the market in the U.S. and globally, and we saw this trend."

"Overall, EV sales are going down. EV demand is down, so it's hard to conclude what's happening."

Baris Akyrek, vice-president, insights and intelligence, auto-Trader.ca

The price of a used Tesla dropped 21.9 per cent year-over-year, while all other EVs listed on AutoTrader fell 16.3 per cent. Photo by Stephen Llewellyn/The Daily Gleaner/Postmedia files

 

No one need concern themselves that the wealthiest man in the world, reportedly with a fortune between US$350 and US$500 billion is being beggared by ill fortune. The fact is, the 'ill fortune' is of his very own construction. And his wealth may decline marginally, but he will remain a man of immense wealth. His personal idiosyncrasies are such that many people are affronted by what he does and says, as much as what they think he does and says. Such being the ill fortune of the filthy rich and the resentment a combination of wealth and odd behaviour engenders.

 

As for Mr. Musk himself, contemplating a possibly temporary but steep loss in public regard that has extended itself to the vehicles he manufactures, no doubt rejection stings and stings sharply for someone more accustomed to basking in the soft light of admiration for his business acumen, his proclivity for taking risks, and his larger-than-life ambitions. This is a man not content to sit on his piles of cash, but driven to invest in bold new production adventures.

 

Unfortunately for Elon Musk he has also chosen to invest his name, his reputation and his time in the world of politics. And as some interpret it, extreme measures in politics, aligning himself wholeheartedly with the new American Republican President of the United States of America. To whom he volunteered his advice as a businessman whose ventures have made him as wealthy as Croesus through a keen insight and admirable judgement. Both of which he was prepared to offer to Donald J. Trump in streamlining government services and pay-outs for a leaner, more efficient model.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk deliver remarks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.  Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Tesla electric vehicles now face the public backlash in protests, vandalization and charging stations set afire. This, just as the pace of adoption to EV technology began to ebb, from its previous flow. So that all vehicles in the EV marketplace have experienced an ownership slowdown, but Tesla far more prominently than others. Leading to a glut of used Teslas in Canada, their prices dropping more swiftly than the aggregate of the market, according to Auto-trader.ca Inc.

 

The number of used Teslas in early March listed on AutoTrader rose 12.5 percent on a year-over-year basis even as the number of all other EVs listed on Auto-Trader declined 3.1 percent. The rising used inventory for Tesla appears even starker measured against used internal combustion engine vehicle inventory whose decline was 14.1 percent in the same time period. A used Tesla dropped in price 21.9 percent in that period in comparison to all other EVs that fell 16.3 percent.

 

Edmunds.com Inc., a California-based market research firm, stated that Tesla experienced its "highest-ever share" of trade-ins for new or used cars from dealerships selling other brands. The Tesla-owning population is suddenly eager to divest itself of the vehicles, generally considered, in reaction to the anger felt toward Elon Musk over his government advisory role, to have an unsavoury odour. Tesla owners are also concerned that their Tesla vehicle will become one of the many that are vandalized. No one wants to own something that no one else wants to own.

 

Tesla reported an eight percent decline in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024; its stock has dropped 39 percent to US$244.29. Without doubt, Mr. Musk could never have envisioned the consequences of his decision to be granted special government status under the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency where he is busy dismantling U.S. federal government agencies to slash spending and diversify government services.

 

Nor has he endeared himself to segments of the population with his spontaneous and often ill-thought-out comments, such as posting on his social-media platform X, a meme comparing former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in 2022. Or in 2023 when he curtailed Ukraine's use of satellite internet service provider Starlink of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of which he is CEO. 

Demonstrators hold anti-Tesla posters during a protest encouraging people to boycott Tesla outside the Tesla Centre Park Royal in London, Britain, March 15, 2025.

Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters

"Tesla Takedown"

"All of the platforms in which we communicate and talk to one another are controlled more and more by the tech oligarchy."

"Were seeing that the press is being owned by billionaires, the social media we use is owned by the same billionaires, and the alignment that is happening in the United States ... is just a more overt version of the same kind of thing that's happening in Canada." 

Juan Alperin, professor, faculty of communication, art and technology, Simon Fraser University

 

"[It's my belief that billionaires are] interfering [with politics in North America and Europe in ways they should not be involved]."

"I'm also against the attacks on Canadian sovereignty ... by saying Canada is not a country and that our prime minister is a governor [Musk quips]."

Andrew Balakshin, Vancouver resident 

Over 80 Tesla vehicles were damaged at a Hamilton, Ontario dealership in a vandalism spree. Carscoops

The backlash against Elon Musk's support of U.S. President Donald Trump's war on Canada begins to mirror a rising tide of popular dissent within the United States that has begun targeting the appointed head of DOGE, through targeting his Tesla electric vehicle car production facilities in a series of protests outside Tesla dealerships to deliver a message of rejection. Those protests are par for the course with a disgruntled public expressing their opinion. It is the accompanying and linked violent criminal acts of sabotage, of puncturing tires, keying paint jobs and most of all fire-bombing vehicles that tell the story of matters getting out of hand.

 

Now Canadians in cities including Ottawa and Vancouver have linked themselves to the growing rejection of Tesla as representative of government-cost-slashing actions of DOGE, under the direction of Elon Musk that speaks to a spreading global rejection of U.S. President Donald Trump's abrasive and volatile style of government.

 

Surrey, British Columbia saw residents holding signs with messages including "elbows up", "Elon be-gone", and "democracy dies in apathy". President Trump has proceeded with his threat to slap steep tariffs on Canadian goods, the result of which has predictably been a trade war. His repeated barbs that Canada would be better off as the 51st state, and that Canadians would love to become Americans, surrendering their sovereignty for the 'greater good' of immersing within the U.S. has struck most Canadians as an unforgivable assault by a former friendly neighbour. 

 

A number of the most prominent incidents in the U.S. have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high. In this image, a member of the Seattle Fire Department is seen inspecting a burned Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla lot in Seattle, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

 

Ordinary Canadians have retaliated by refusing to buy American products, seeking out Canadian-produced goods or alternately foodstuffs arriving in Canada from other parts of the world rather than the United States. Musk, the self-described "free speech absolutist" faces criticism from hate-speech watchdogs, seething with outrage that his social media platform X allows extremist, dangerous and antisemitic comments to flourish on X.

 

The world's wealthiest individual has been advising President Trump on overhauling the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, newly created to install Mr. Musk as a special government agent dedicated to reducing the costs of government services. There are those who cite a post Musk shared originating with another X user that posted: "Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did."

 

Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

Few individuals have the high profile internationally as does Elon Musk. His partnering with the new U.S. president has only increased his visibility and the suspicions surrounding his intentions. Resulting in the auto production company directly associated with the man becoming a target for protests and vandalism. In Oregon gunshots were fired at a Tesla dealership. In Seattle four Cybertrucks were destroyed in a deliberate blaze.

 

Action Network website hosts the "Tesla Takedown" protests where events are posted, used by individuals and community groups to promote what the site describes as 'progressive causes'. Dozens of protests are shown scheduled across the United States and Europe through the remainder of March and into April. 

 

Law enforcement respond to reports of incendiary devices at Tesla showroom in Austin, Texas, March 24, 2025.  @DocumentingATX / X

"The FBI will be relentless in its mission to protect the American people. Acts of violence, vandalism, and domestic terrorism — like the recent Tesla attacks — will be pursued with the full force of the law."

"These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night."

"Individuals require little planning to use rudimentary tactics, such as improvised incendiary devices and firearms, and may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes." 

Federal Bureau of Investigation statement

U.S. President Donald Trump's Trade War With Canada

"All gloves are off."

"Canada is being hit hard from its historically strongest ally, and it may be politically expedient to target individuals like Musk who garner outsized influence over the U.S. administration."

James Hinton, senior fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation

 

"Provinces would need to heavily subsidize new infrastructure to replace Starlink, which could take years to implement."

"Legally, targeting Musk's companies could be seen as overreach and Musk could sue in Canadian or U.S. courts to challenge such measures."

"[A bull's-eye on Musk's back also] risks looking like a personal vendetta rather than a rational economic response."

Andreas Schotter, professor of International business, University of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business

Starlink satellite antennas are seen at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), the international trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, on August 31, 2023. Photo by ODD ANDERSEN /Getty

As it begins to appear more and more inevitable that Donald Trump is prepared to launch another painful trade war with Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union in his determination to, in his opinion, put a stop to other countries' reliance on America's generosity, helping them to fund their own economic advance to the detriment of that of the United States, former allies and trade partners are mulling their options in an effort to stop the roller-coaster destruction of the global economy.

 

Economists everywhere agree that a substantial trade war such as what Mr. Trump is gearing up for will have the end effect of harming the world's economy, as it plays havoc in targeted nations' economies, bringing many to the point of inflationary stress, certain to impact heavily on national populations' quality of life. There is also the recognition that the United States itself will not come away free from the impact of such a draconian move as Mr. Trump contemplates.

 

In Canada, government authorities at every level are making plans and consulting with one another in a combined effort to produce a protective shield as much as possible to avoid the harm certain to arise when a commanding country whose industries are enmeshed with those of the very countries being targeted will produce harmful effects that will bring economies to their knees. In Ontario, Canada's wealthiest province, a plan is afoot to target Elon Musk in recognition of his influence with the Trump White House. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his intention to begin the process by "ripping up" the province's $100 million contract with Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet provide operated by aerospace company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Signed last November, the deal  was on tap to provide internet access for Canadians resident in rural communities. "Ontario won't do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy", blustered Premier Ford, leading other premiers to scrutinize their own Starlink contracts.

 

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford holds a news conference in Etobicoke on Feb. 3, 2025. Later Ford said, with the U.S. pausing tariffs, Ontario will also pause its retaliatory measures. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

A situation that elicited a shrug from Mr. Musk who responded to the Premier's X warning statement with a two-word "Oh well". This type of criticism will be no surprise to a man who has aligned himself so intimately with the Trump administration, taking on the role of efficiency czar to a President whose unexpected turn against his U.S. allies has drawn surprise and resentment from his international colleagues. 

 

Emmett Macfarlane, political science professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario, approved of the move to send a powerful message to Musk. "Appeasement does little to stop a bully. We should exercise our powers to punch the bully (metaphorically) in the nose", he said in support of the Starlink cancellation threat. 

Aside from the Starlink contract, there is the issue of Musk companies in operation across Canada; Tesla alone operates 32 stores, Canada's most popular electric vehicle brand. Should a 100 percent tariff be slapped on Tesla vehicles the purchase price would be pushed from its current $56,000 tab into a sphere most electric vehicle buyers would consider hands-off. 

Doug Ford, right, says Ontario is ending its contract with Starlink, the satellite company controlled by Elon Musk, left. Photo by Getty Images/The Canadian Press

"A $100 million contract when he's worth [over] $400 billion -- this is just a flea on his side."

"If we want to truly irritate the Americans, we need to move beyond thinking about what kind of ketchup we buy and think of ways of hitting their [digital] service providers without unduly harming Canadian consumers."

Daniel Trefler, trade economist, Canada research chair in competitiveness and prosperity, Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto