A Tesla owner's excitement over their new vehicle turned to frustration when it was vandalized after just one month. But their experience sparked an important conversation about electric vehicle ownership.
The Model 3 driver took to Reddit to share photos of the vandalism, which included a broken windshield and left splatters of mayonnaise and chicken noodle soup all over the car. Surrounding parked cars were unscathed.
"Sick to my stomach I didn't have Sentry mode running as it was parked at my apartment in a safe neighborhood," the Reddit user said. "I've learned my lesson with this one but nonetheless WHY do people do this!"
The distaste toward Tesla and EVs in general isn't new. Teslas have been targeted in road rage incidents and acts of vandalism. Vandals have also damaged EV charging stations by cutting cables and rendering chargers unusable.
It's tough to say what sparked these specific acts, but some people do have concerns about EVs. One of the most common is the pollution that battery manufacturing and charging creates, though even EVs with carbon-intensive batteries produce lower lifetime pollution levels than gas-powered vehicles.
Others worry about the harm mining for minerals needed for lithium-ion batteries causes the environment. However, low-carbon technology requires substantially less mining than dirty energy technology. EVs could replace the billions of tons of oil, coal, and gas extracted annually for dirty energy with millions of tons of metals.
EV and charging station vandalism can discourage EV purchases, which slows the move toward cleaner transportation and a cooler planet. With fewer EVs and more gas-powered vehicles on the road, it's more difficult to cut down on dirty energy sources such as gas and oil, which contribute greatly to the rising global temperature.
Several commenters on the original post — many of whom were Tesla owners — chimed in to share similar experiences with backlash toward their cars.
"Tesla hate is real, and now I'm unfortunately at war with people I've never met. I try to be so nice and polite to everyone, but Tesla hate is totally a thing I run into way too much," one wrote.
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Chargers not working 🚫 Another Redditor said: "I live in Alberta (oil & ga******* everywhere). I worry every time I take mine out of the garage, check it over every time I get back from wherever, and watch boring people walk by on Sentry constantly."
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