A Reddit user posted to the r/TeslaModel3 subreddit with a problem they say they've never dealt with before. Apparently, ever since purchasing their Tesla, they've been dealing with an inordinate amount of road rage.
This isn't a complete surprise, as electric vehicles and charging stations are no strangers to vandalism. It's not uncommon for EVs, especially Teslas, to be keyed or otherwise vandalized. It's also common for vandals to leave charging stations unusable.
In the post, titled "Roadrage against Tesla drivers?," the original poster wrote: "Ever since purchasing my Tesla I've experienced nothing but road rage. Is this normal?"
They described one such incident in which a car followed them for a long time, honking and driving recklessly, and added at the end of the post: "I also own a 2017 Camaro and till this day have never experienced any road rage while driving it."
Instances of harassment like this could discourage would-be buyers from switching to an EV and slow the widespread adoption of cleaner cars.
It's hard to say for sure what stirs this anti-EV sentiment, but it could be partly due to misinformation about the impact of EVs on the environment — not so much the pollution, or lack thereof, but the mining required to obtain the minerals for EV batteries.
Despite what misinformation would have some believe, the amount of mining required for dirty energy sources such as coal, oil, and gas dwarfs that of clean energy sources. According to a study citing the International Energy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and oil giant British Petroleum, nearly 17 billion tons of coal, oil, and gas are mined globally every year.
On the other hand, minerals necessary for clean energy — such as lithium, cobalt, and copper — are mined at a rate of about 8 million tons per year. On top of that, it doesn't take long for most EVs to reach the break-even point — the point at which the vehicle has reduced enough carbon pollution to offset the pollution created during its production.
Unfortunately, some commenters had experiences similar to the OP's.
One commenter could relate, posting: "It's pretty common in southern Illinois, nobody believed me until they drove with me and experienced it first hand."
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Another user commented: "People just haters and want to try you. I'm experiencing too."
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