Tesla Takedown: Boycott, Trade-Ins And Plummeting Stock — The Backlash Against Musk

What started as a pushback from a section of civil society against billionaire Elon Musk has snowballed into an escalating protest, involving boycotts, trade-ins and, in some cases, burning down of Tesla cars.

"Tesla takedown", as the protest is now referred to, is spearheaded in a decentralised manner by activists and non-profit groups based in the United States.

Their stated goal is to hit the business of Tesla, the electric vehicle giant owned by Musk, to retaliate against his support for extreme austerity measures and right-wing politics.

The protesters, apart from calling for boycott and replacement of Tesla vehicles, have also appealed investors to sell the company's shares. “If we kill the Tesla brand, if we drive down the stock price low enough, we can force him to sell his stock to pay back the billions of dollars of debt...This will drive Tesla’s stock into a death spiral," The Verge quoted journalist Micah Lee, who is involved in the protests, as saying.

The key leaders of the anti-Musk backlash include Alex Winter, actor and filmmaker; Joan Donovan, academic and founder of the Critical Internet Studies Institute; and Valerie Costa, co-founder of environmental activist group known as 'The Troublemakers'.

The immediate trigger for the protests was the laying off of thousands of federal workers in early 2025, after Musk was given the charge of Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, under the new Donald Trump-led administration.

Since then, demonstrations have been held outside Tesla showrooms in various US provinces, including Maryland, Colorado, Florida, California, and Minnesota. Earlier in March, protests were also held at some of the EV maker's key dealership stores in New York City.

Although the protest organisers have distanced themselves from acts of arson, slogans of "Burn a Tesla: Save Democracy" were raised at some of the demonstrations. Three persons have so far been arrested for allegedly resorting to violence to destroy Tesla's properties.

Those behind the "Tesla takedown" agitation have planned a widescale protest on March 29. Demonstrations are planned at around 500 places, including outside 277 Tesla showrooms in the US and hundreds outside the country, said Alice Hu, executive director of Planet Over Profit, as per reports.

The protesters may also hold demonstrations at Tesla Supercharger stations on that day, Hu was reported as saying.

Meanwhile, President Trump has warned of pressing "domestic terrorism" charges against vandals targeting Tesla vehicles. They stand a "very good chance of going to jail for up to 20 years", he posted on social media.

Trade-ins involving Tesla cars have surged sharply in the aftermath of the protests called against Musk.

From March 1 to 15, trade-ins—the use of existing vehicle as part payment for buying a new or used one—of Tesla car model of 2017 or newer comprised 1.4% of all vehicles traded in, Reuters reported, citing data it accessed from Edmunds, which serves as an online inventory for the US automotive industry. This is higher as compared to 0.4% in March last year.

Going by the trend of the first fortnight of March, the monthly trade-ins involving Tesla vehicles would be the highest in the records maintained by Edmunds, the report added.

In the preceding month of February, Tesla cars made up 1.2% of all vehicles traded in, it further said, citing Edmunds data.

A slew of prominent personalities, mainly those at political odds with Musk and Trump, have took to social media to appeal Tesla users to sell their vehicles. Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, posted on X that he is replacing his Tesla with Chevrolet Tahoe.

“I bought a Tesla because it was fast like a rocket ship...But now every time I drive it, I feel like a rolling billboard for a man dismantling our government and hurting people. So Tesla, you’re fired! (sic)," he wrote.

Tesla's stock has nosedived over the past two months, falling over 40% since Trump's presidency began. The shares have slid by more than 24% in the past 30 days alone.

While the plunge is attributed to the EV maker's dwindling prospects in global markets amid the rise of rivals like BYD, analysts have also linked the stock's fall to the drubbing which Musk's brand has faced.

"We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly," JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman said in a research note last week.

The escalation of 'Tesla takedown' protests is only going to further hit the EV brand, thereby adding more pressure on its stock value. The company's market capitalisation has already shrunk to $779 billion from around $1.1 trillion earlier this year. The m-cap loss has directly affected Musk as the world's richest man holds 13% stake in the company.

Recently, Trump—whose presidential campaign was supported by quarter of a billion dollar in aid by Musk—attempted to popularise Tesla among his support base. On March 11, he bought a red Tesla Model S on camera. However, the move could not arrest the fall in the EV maker's stock.

The appeal to boycott and replace Tesla cars comes at a time when its sales are already under pressure in the United States. In 2024, its sales in the country declined for the first time, slumping by 5.6% to 634,000 units, per the data maintained by Kelley Blue Book, a vehicle valuation firm.

Thomas Rice, co-founder and portfolio manager at Minotaur Capital, described Tesla's recent fall as the "greatest brand destruction of our times". This is "thanks to Elon Musk", The Australian Financial Review reported him as saying on Friday. The company is also losing the innovation race, the analyst added.