I wish people expanded their hatred for Elon

To Musk or not to Musk

As many of my friends know, I’ve had a Tesla for more than 4 years and was an immediate convert. I knew right away I would never go back to an ICE (internal combustion engine). A lot of people assume I’m a huge Tesla fan, but actually I’m a huge fan* of all EVs (electric vehicles). It’s just that Tesla is the only company that’s manufacturing EVs at scale, especially in the US, and legacy auto is still years behind in many respects.

It has become quite fashionable for people to say they will never ever buy a Tesla because they dont want to support Musk. I get this: Elon is a bad person. I just wish that people would be honest and expand this practice to other areas of their life.

VW, for example, intentionally programmed 11 million vehicles to show that their vehicles’ emissions were 40 times less than they actually were, which led to the led to the death of 59 people.

Later, several other manufacturers were caught doing the same thing, including Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Kia, Nissan and Hyundai.

GM and others “donated millions of dollars to Republicans who have questioned the 2020 election results”. And child workers have been found throughout Hyundai-Kia supply chain in Alabama.

There are tons more examples of corporations that have done things that are much worse than what Elon has said, and none of them are responsible for dragging legacy auto kicking and screaming towards the EV age and making the earth that much healthier for us and our kids.

To be clear, I wish Elon would step down as CEO of Tesla or maybe just shut his mouth. I just wish people would hold other car manufacturers and other companies to the same standards. I also wish people would buy an EV instead of another ICE, or god forbid, buy a smaller car instead of a vehicle that would be a mini bus in any other country.

I know from personal experience that EVs are viable for most people, even living in harsh climates, but so many people are unwilling to do the research or make minor changes to their lifestyles. Teslas now start at 33k, not counting savings on gas and maintenance or the absolute joy it is to drive an EV!

* I’m actually much more a fan of public transit, but that’s never going to happen in the US, at least not in my lifetime.