On Thursday, the participants gathered at Hardess Studios in south London to stage the demonstration. They took turns to swing at the car with sledgehammers and baseball batsread more<\/p>\n
Critics of billionaire Elon Musk donned a protective helmet and smashed sledgehammers at a disused Tesla bound for the scrap heap, to let out their frustration against its boss. According to The Guardian, the public art project was organised by a social media campaign group called \u201cEveryone Hates Elon,\u201d in London.<\/p>\n
The car in question was a 2014 Tesla Model S, which was provided by an anonymous donor \u201cto create a debate about wealth inequality\u201d, a spokesperson for the group said. On Thursday, the participants gathered at Hardess Studios in south London to stage the demonstration. They took turns to swing at the car with sledgehammers and baseball bats. The destroyed electric vehicle will now be auctioned in the next few weeks, and the proceeds will go to food bank charities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re giving Londoners a chance to stand up to far-right hatred and billionaires and express how they feel about the current state of the world,\u201d said the group. \u201cTherapy is expensive, but this is free.\u201d One of the demonstrators was seen donning a Ukrainian flag as she slammed the old car\u2019s bonnet. Britney Spears\u2019s \u201cHit Me Baby One More Time\u201d blared from a speaker, keeping the demonstrators motivated.<\/p>\n
About the group \u2018Everyone Hates Elon\u2019<\/p>\n
The UK-based group garnered attention all around the world after they distributed stickers with the slogan \u201cDon\u2019t buy a Swastika\u201d. While speaking to The Guardian, the group representatives made it clear that the Thursday stunt which they called \u201cLondon vs Musk\u201d should not be replicated outside the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a private event with a used Tesla, destined for the scrapyard \u2013 it\u2019s a supervised, controlled art piece and there are proper safety measures in place,\u201d said a spokesperson. \u201cWe urge people not to damage other Teslas or any other cars.\u201d They also mentioned that the battery of the scrapped car was removed and recycled before they started hitting it with a sledgehammer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just aghast at what I see going on in America at the moment,\u201d said Lee Woods, a 45-year-old university lecturer who had travelled two hours from Hampshire for the event. \u201cI think Musk is using his obscene wealth to promote the far right.\u201d Musk has garnered severe backlash after he was appointed as the head of US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge).<\/p>\n
The department was the brain behind the federal job cuts that left thousands of people without livelihoods. Not only this, the Space X CEO garnered backlash after he appeared to be performing a Nazi Salute at the Trump inauguration event.<\/p>\n
The brewing disdain for Musk is also having a major effect on Tesla\u2019s shares, which dropped 13 per cent in the first three months of 2025. During the Thursday event, protesters urged people to boycott the electric vehicle company.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion [on Musk] has changed hugely,\u201d said Giles Pearson, 32, who dealt the first blow on Thursday. \u201cSince buying Twitter he\u2019s become seriously rightwing and alienated a lot of people by doing so. I would never normally do something like this \u2026 but I\u2019ve always wanted to smash a car,\u201d Tesla is yet to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, the participants gathered at Hardess Studios in south London to stage the demonstration. They took turns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,8866,295,393,8864,4884,257,8869,8865,8867,8868,8870,8871,8872,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-13004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-elon","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-everyone-hates-elon","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-london-art-project","16":"tag-musk","17":"tag-musk-car","18":"tag-release-anger","19":"tag-tesla-protests","20":"tag-tesla-stocks","21":"tag-tesla-stocks-today","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114323655521115239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}