- Early organizers of some of the “Tesla Takedown” protests say the organization’s goal is to hit Elon Musk where it hurts: his wealth. As protests surge and Tesla’s stock plummets, even loyal investors are turning against the CEO, blaming his political ties for the company’s decline.
Fred McKinney loved his Tesla. He bought his first car—a Tesla Model 3—in November 2018 and describes himself as a Tesla evangelist. Over the last few months, he’s come to regret it.
“It was a great car,” McKinney, co-founder of the economic consulting company BJM Solutions, told Fortune. “And I wasn’t just a casual Tesla owner, I was an evangelist for the vehicle and the company, and quite frankly, for Musk.”
“I have remorse now about that because he’s proven to be someone that doesn’t deserve my support.”
McKinney sold his Tesla in February, swapping it out for an alternative electric vehicle. He cites Musk’s role in the Trump administration, especially his connection to the cost-cutting team DOGE, as the reason. “It was a political decision but also a moral decision,” he said. “I see the damage that [DOGE] is doing to the fabric of our society.”
McKinney didn’t know he was part of a wider movement when he ditched the car.
“When I sold my car, the uprising that is now taking place around the world was probably in its infancy, and I didn’t know anything about it, but I was comforted to see that others felt the same way,” he said.
Over the last few months, protests against Tesla have erupted worldwide—some peaceful, while others have involved vandalism and arson. The efforts have caused the EV maker’s stock to plummet, tanked car sales, and angered investors.
Early organizers told Fortune the aim is to hit Musk where it hurts: his wealth.
Who are the ‘Tesla Takedown Movement’?
The action against Tesla has impacted Musk’s personal wealth, wiping around $175 billion off his December peak of $486 billion, per Bloomberg’s billionaire index.
One of the early coordinators of the “Tesla Takedown” movement, Edward Niedermeyer, told Fortune that this wealth drop is exactly the aim.
“The goal, I would say, is to bankrupt Elon Musk—bring down his empire,” he told Fortune.
Musk is still the richest person in the world despite his recent losses, but Tesla is paying the price for some of his unpopular activities outside of the company. “Hopefully it does spiral on Tesla stock,” Niedermeyer said. “If we don’t bankrupt him, but we exert enough financial pressure to materially change a political situation, that’s fine, too.”
Unlike McKinney, Niedermeyer is not new to his anti-Musk sentiment.
He has been a critic of Tesla and the company’s CEO for years, publishing a book in 2019 providing a highly skeptical view of the electric car company’s history. Musk has, in turn, publicly criticized Niedermeyer in the past. He puts the recent rise of organized objection to Musk and Tesla down to a “perfect storm” of “outrage about the political situation and the lack of other outlets.”
“It’s much harder to target Donald Trump’s financial wealth,” he said.
The protests and the violence associated with the movement have, however, prompted threats from Trump, who vowed to label vandalism and attacks against the carmaker as domestic terrorism.
But Niedermeyer is relatively unbothered by this, saying he also disapproves of the violent acts and vandalism.
“I don’t have a problem in theory of people being prosecuted for this,” he said. “The only thing that worries me about it is if there’s some effort to take what is clearly a peaceful movement—as the only organized part is peaceful—and deem something like Tesla Takedown a terrorist organization.”
“As far as I can tell, this has all been individuals acting alone … whereas protesters all show up in the daytime with our faces uncovered. So there’s a clear, a clear distinction there,” he said. “These people are not domestic terrorists in any sense.”
Valerie Costa, who co-founded an environmental activist group called the Troublemakers that helped organize the Tesla protests, has similar worries. “The administration has been trying to paint a picture of the Tesla protests as the same as the vandalism that’s been happening. And that’s not at all the case,” she told Fortune. “The protests have always been peaceful, nonviolent protests—First Amendment-protected protests. And there’s been a conflation of the two that’s super dangerous.”
Costa, who has also recently been a victim of Musk’s public ire, worries that the billionaire’s inflated power could affect her.
In two separate posts on X, Musk targeted both Costa’s organization and Costa herself.
He first accused Troublemakers of being backed by ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for Democrats, something she denies. Then he posted again, this time sharing a video interview she had done along with the text: “Costa is committing crimes.”
“I was terrified when I saw that post,” she said. “And since then, my life has been completely different.” Costa said she received a barrage of threatening messages to her social media and work email. After Trump suggested Tesla protesters be labeled domestic terrorists, she even sat down with her housemates to discuss what to do if the FBI turned up at their door.
“He is essentially one of the most powerful people in government, if not the most powerful person right now,” she said of Musk. “And it was all very scary.”
Tesla’s stock slump
Musk has been trying to fight back against the growing wave of protests as Tesla’s stock price plummets.
The billionaire has won Trump’s support on the issue—the president turned the White House lawn into a Tesla car show one day this week. Recently, he also held an all-hands meeting, encouraging investors to hold onto their stock.
However, the stock slide and the effect on car sales have been dramatic, with Europe particularly badly affected. Tesla’s market share in Europe was already decreasing, with vehicle registrations plummeting in countries like France and Germany.
Tesla’s car sales in Germany, Europe’s top market for electric vehicles, dropped 76% in February compared to the same month last year, according to the German Association of the Automotive Industry. This marks the second consecutive month of declining sales for the U.S. automaker in the country.
Musk and Tesla’s brands have always been intertwined, meaning what the CEO does outside of Tesla can directly hurt or help the company. As Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull, put it last year: “Tesla is Musk and Musk is Tesla.”
Now, even the most bullish Tesla investors are turning on the CEO.
Last week, Ives deviated from his typically optimistic analysis in a note to investors. While Ives still maintained his “outperform” rating on the stock, he warned that investor patience is “wearing very thin” amid Musk’s political activities, citing the protests as hurting the brand.
Others, including longtime Tesla investor Ross Gerber, are calling for Elon Musk to step down as CEO. Gerber has argued that Musk’s focus on his White House role has led to Tesla’s neglect amid a sharp decline in its stock price and that Musk needs to step down to protect the company.
For McKinney, getting Musk out of the CEO role is not enough. He says he doesn’t see a way back for his old loyalty to Tesla as long as Musk is involved. “I wouldn’t buy another Tesla as long as Musk is associated with it, whether he’s the CEO or even a partial owner,” he said.
“It takes a long time to develop a brand, but that brand’s value can be destroyed very quickly, and it’s very difficult to make it right again,” he said. “This is going to be a case that’s written up in business schools and talked about for decades to come.”
Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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