Rodney Best has driven Cadillacs, BMWs and Corvettes, but it’s his new Tesla Cybertruck that gets all the attention ‒ and the occasional middle finger.
Best doesn’t see his Cybertruck as a political statement, although he is a fan of Tesla and its increasingly political leader, Elon Musk.
But he’s among many Cybertruck owners who have felt attacked for their vehicle choice. While not everyone sees Tesla ownership as political, there’s a growing trend of people who do.
Online, Cybertruck social media groups are filled with examples of drivers being harassed, yelled at or targeted for their vehicle of choice. And news reports nationally show multiple dealerships have been targeted by anti-Musk vandals.
On Friday, federal agents announced they were investigating vandalism at a Tesla dealership in Loveland, Colorado. Someone smashed windows, painted Cybertruck windshields with large red Xs and tried to start a fire. Local media reported that someone also painted “Nazi Cars” at the dealership about an hour northwest of Denver, which said it was the third attack of its kind this year.
The vandalism is happening as the world’s richest man and the Cybertruck have rapidly taken on a new political significance in America.
After decades of pushing Americans to drive electric cars, including Tesla sedans, some liberals have soured on Musk’s company. And statistics show that Cybertruck registrations have been surging in conservative states like Texas and Florida, according to data compiled by S&P Global Mobility.
In Musk’s marketing, the Cybertruck aims to be everything many early EVs were not: Big, boxy and rugged, with lots of power. While most EVs seemed designed for a smaller, smoother future, the Cybertruck appears poised to help its owners survive a coming apocalypse in style and comfort.
It’s equipped with the towing capacity to haul a 30-foot boat and bullet-resistant stainless steel body – the kind of marketing it takes to sell a red-state EV.
“Drive it and you’ll never go back. Until you drive it, you’ll never know,” said Best, 71, from the front seat as the truck drove him around St. Petersburg, Florida. “It just makes sense to me, the fact that it’s Elon Musk designing it, because he’s so smart, and it’s got all these safety features.”
The battles over Musk’s vehicles are the latest salvo in the controversial history of battery-powered electric vehicles, which have become a polarizing presence in the United States.
A 2024 study by auto industry analytics firm AutoPacific found that more than half of battery EV drivers identify as Democrats, compared with 30% Republican. AutoPacific also singled out Musk’s political activity as a possible driver of EV adoption among conservatives.
“Our analyses of EV owners over the years have clearly shown a correlation between more left-leaning political views and EV early adopters,” AutoPacific Director of Marketing and Consumers Insights Deborah Grieb said in announcing the study. “But as EVs continue to expand across brands, vehicle types and price ranges, that association is showing signs of fading.”
Tom Libby, an automotive analyst with S&P Global Mobility, said the year-old Cybertrucks have quickly had an outsized impact on the country. With only about 3,000-4,000 registered each month, Cybertrucks remain a niche vehicle, he said.
“It’s an extremely unique, extremely polarizing vehicle,” he said, noting there are about 35,000 registered nationally. “It’s the other end of the spectrum from the Toyota Camry, which is designed to offend nobody at all.”
Libby said Cybertruck registrations have slowed in recent months, as have registrations of Teslas overall, while EVs from other manufacturers are starting to gain momentum. Tesla is the single-largest producer of EVs on American roads, with roughly half the market share.
Nationally, there were more than 550,000 Tesla vehicles registered last year, Libby said.
The first EVs sold in America were small and underpowered, with low-capacity batteries. But expensive EVs like the Cybertruck, Rivian’s R1, Ford’s F-150 Lightning and GMC’s EV Hummer and Sierra are shifting public perception, said Whitney Yates Woods, a car dealership owner in the Phoenix area.
Woods, 38, drives a Hummer EV. She’s also tested out the Cybertruck and other EVs. She said her dealerships are seeing more and more buyers consider EVs. Like the Cybertruck, EV Hummers and Sierras sell for around $100,000.
“At first, it was definitely a status car, athletes and famous people getting them,” Woods said. Now, “I don’t know that they necessarily come in and want to make a statement. People are like oh, GM makes that? They’re surprised at how nice they are. People are just kind of a level of surprised, shocked even that it’s an EV. And they might not have ever considered an EV before but now they are.”
Woods said being able to offer top-of-the-line vehicles that happen to be EVs seems to have triggered a perception shift among buyers.
“I think they’re not expecting it to have all the bells and whistles. These are luxury vehicles. They are our top-of-the-line offerings,” she said.
Best, the Florida Cybertruck driver, said luxury and technology are what prompted him to buy his stainless steel truck. He said he loves it can drive him around town using the company’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” mode, which uses cameras and other sensors to autonomously navigate without his direct input. It’s fast, he said, and powerful.
And whenever Musk and his engineers come up with software that can make the truck better, they can just update it over the Internet.
“I’ll never buy a gas engine ever again. Electric motors are just better,” Best said. “And Elon Musk, I don’t know why anybody would not want to follow someone so smart.”