{"id":34343,"date":"2025-04-10T21:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T01:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=34343"},"modified":"2025-04-10T21:07:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T01:07:00","slug":"how-michigan-tesla-shoppers-are-dealing-with-violent-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/how-michigan-tesla-shoppers-are-dealing-with-violent-protests","title":{"rendered":"How Michigan Tesla shoppers are dealing with violent protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Troy<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Tesla showrooms and owners have become targets across the United States as political activists protest Chairman Elon Musk\u2019s work for the Trump administration\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n

Metro Detroit is not immune.<\/p>\n

Showrooms here have been spared violent attacks like the firebombing of a Las Vegas showroom that destroyed three vehicles, but they have been the focus of organized protests and owners have been harassed. Politics and the auto industry have long intersected \u2014 including controversial taxpayer bailouts for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. in 2009 and recent $7,500 taxpayer subsidies for well-to-do EV buyers.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/figure>\n
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In Kentwood, Michigan, Tesla Cybertrucks were vandalized.<\/em><\/div>\n
Kentwood Police Dept, Kentwood Police Dept<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Protests and boycotts have followed, but violence against dealers and owners is a new wrinkle. The Detroit News visited showrooms in the metro area over the last week where foot traffic was brisk. Interest in Tesla products appeared healthy, but customers were aware of the threats and harassment that have become an unfortunate part of the shopping experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cF— Elon! \u201cYou are f—— pigs!\u201d yelled a passenger in a pickup truck as it drove past a line of Tesla test vehicles in Somerset Mall\u2019s parking garage.<\/p>\n

Christina Bentley, 44, of Macomb Township took a test ride with her family in a Model 3 and was undeterred by the anti-Tesla campaign. \u201cNot a problem for us \u2014 100%,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel all this is transitory. It\u2019s the Democrats\u2019 cause du jour and they\u2019ll be mad about something else in a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tesla showroom and service center in West Bloomfield has been the target of protests. Its foot traffic, however, was steady during during Detroit News visits.<\/em><\/div>\n
Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/div>\n

Like the Bentleys, many customers brought their children who seemed as intent on jumping in the driver\u2019s seat as their licensed parents. At Tesla\u2019s West Bloomfield dealership, a small child led her mother by the hand from Model 3 to Cybertruck pointing out the vehicles\u2019 different features from cupholders to big screens.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son loves Teslas,\u201d said Bentley at Somerset. \u201cWe\u2019re totally sold on the features and the safety is great. This will be his car when he turns 16.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tesla\u2019s showroom inside Somerset is on private property and therefore spared protests on its doorstep. But protesters have regularly gathered outside the mall located on Big Beaver Road in Troy \u2014 as they have at Tesla\u2019s larger, stand-alone West Bloomfield and Ann Arbor service centers.<\/p>\n

Tesla declined comment to The News, but the protests appear organized and occur regularly each week. International protests reached a crescendo on March 30 with a “Global Day of Action” targeting more than 500 Tesla locations worldwide.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
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In a Seattle Tesla lot, four Cybertrucks were targeted.<\/em><\/div>\n
AP, AP<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While there have been no reports of violence against Michigan showrooms, there have been individual incidents targeting owners.<\/p>\n

In Kentwood outside Grand Rapids last month, police reported five Tesla Cybertrucks were vandalized in the Woodland Mall parking lot with spray painted messages like “Nazis always lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Michigan Tesla Owner\u2019s Group Facebook page is busy with chatter about how to deal with vandals \u2014 from capturing footage on Tesla\u2019s Sentry Mode camera system to removing Tesla badges from their cars.<\/p>\n