My Unnatural Hatred of Tesla

I’m going to put this out there. I absolutely hate Tesla. It’s not so much the product as the cult-like owners and the company itself.

Illustration for article titled My Unnatural Hatred of Tesla
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I’ve been driving electric (LEAF) since 2012 and I spend more time on EV sites than anything else. Tesla adherents would have you believe that Tesla is the only company doing anything to further the EV revolution and that for that matter, they are the only company capable. All the while, their products are maddeningly expensive and carry around far more battery capacity than is necessary (spare me the corner cases). How is that environmentally sound?

And (tin foil hat on), I firmly believe that many of the more prominent EV sites are either owned by or unduly influenced by Tesla. Thus articles are unfairly biased toward Tesla. In fact, at least one site has already been exposed (Electrek) and another is under heavy suspicion (Insideevs). I also believe that they use underhanded tactics such as using anonymous posters to undermine competing products on these supposedly independent websites in the comments section (say, did you hear the LEAF suffers from battery degradation and the Bolt has terrible seats). This is where many people begin their EV information searches. They even use these tactics on sites dedicated to specific competitors such as mynissanleaf.com. Seriously, several of the mods over there are Tesla owners who actually despise the LEAF. They’ve admitted as much.

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I don’t have anything against Tesla’s products as by most accounts they are decent enough (I have a friend with an X). But I do think the company itself is morally bankrupt. Some will argue that this is just capitalism in the 21st century. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.