Breathtaking Brand Destruction: Why I Broke up With My Tesla
I’m not sure if I broke up with Tesla or Elon Musk broke up with me. But my enchantment with the car company has ended, and the Model Y I crushed on has been traded for an Audi E-tron.
A few years back I confessed to Salish Current (“Electric vehicles and the Tesla experience,” Nov. 4, 2021) just how excited I was about my 2020 Tesla, and EVs in general. Emission free. Energy efficient. Cheap to recharge, about seven dollars for a “full tank.” Fast. Quiet. Mechanically simple. I can “fuel” at home. I haven’t been to a gas station or oil change in almost five years.
Back then, Tesla’s CEO still seemed nerdy cool. Musk was a genius entrepreneur and infectious salesman with dorky flair, a South African immigrant who not only was bringing electric cars to the masses but also was building rockets, satellite networks, solar roofs, massive battery “giga-factories,” robots, super computers, and brain implants.
He was so reminiscent of Tony Stark, the hero of “Iron Man,” that he had a cameo in “Iron Man 2.” When Musk hosted Saturday Night Live he explained away his social awkwardness by confirming that he had Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. He smoked weed on camera and was so frenetic and volatile at work that I couldn’t help wondering about either other drugs or psychological stress.
https://www.postalley.org/2025/04/17/breathtaking-brand-destruction-why-i-broke-up-with-my-tesla/
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