I don’t know what the hell a “Roman salute” is. But I do know what I saw from the leader of the biggest EV company in the world. Perhaps it was an awkward turn of body movement done thrice on camera in the heat of the moment, but I—along with a lot of the general American public and even several European leaders—are not buying it. We all watched Musk perform what looked like a “Sieg Heil” salute, during an era of historic spikes in antisemitism, in front of a whole Capital One stadium full of people in Washington D.C.
Some Trump or Musk loyalists have rationalized it away, but it’s impossible for anyone with integrity to do that without considering the man’s history. Like when he changed his handle on X to evoke a meme used by far-right groups.
Or the fact he’s been following, and promoting, tons of white supremacist culture warriors on his own platform. Or the fact he’s espoused comments that line up with the Great Replacement theory: The idea that population collapse in “civilized” nations is nigh, so (white) families must have (white) children, lest they get “replaced” by people from nations where the people are a little bit browner.
But the salute was a new low. It has since been exuberantly embraced by far-right groups across the world. Whether this was a poorly done inside joke on his part to appeal to an incredibly online select group of manosphere influencers and reply guys, or a new interpretation of a forced meme (like naming a para-government agency after a joke from 2010), Musk’s terminally online behavior bled into real life in a way that’s impossible for normal people to ignore. For millions of Tesla drivers in America and beyond, reconciling the bad actions of the CEO with his electric cars feels every bit as impossible.
On a human, societal level, this has a lot of implications that fall well outside of the scope of what InsideEVs covers. But Musk’s latest fiasco has the potential to do a lot of damage to the EV market. Much of its future in the United States is still very much tied to the hip with Tesla and Elon Musk. This act is fresh, and new, and it’s hard to say where things will go. But I fear this stunt is a hard line for how consumers view Tesla and how the company itself is led. And the man who any investor will admit is the “heart and lungs” of Tesla’s sky-high stock price doing what everyone thinks is a Nazi salute on national television while his company slides into decline cannot bode well for that company. If Tesla goes down, it potentially puts the whole EV market in trouble.
“There hasn’t been a scenario like this before,” said E.W Niedermeyer, the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and a journalist who writes about the EV and autonomous vehicle sector.
Even before this incident, Tesla’s sales were already shaping up to be either flat or down in most markets where it competes. In Europe, Tesla sold 10.8% fewer cars in 2024 compared to 2023. It’s also lost some market share, only capturing 16% of all BEV sales compared to 18% the year before. In the U.S., it’s still the EV sales leader by a huge margin, but there are some troubles on the horizon.
The Cybertruck’s polarizing appearance and growing reputation as a poorly-made meme truck driven by clout chasers have started to catch up to it in the form of idled production facilities. The Model S and X sales have stayed flat and they are no longer on sale in many markets. There’s a new Model Y on the horizon, but it’s not clear if it’ll have what it needs to keep the momentum that saw it rocket to the top of the sales charts. Tesla’s lineup is old, and some have opted out of Tesla’s brand because of the things that Musk did online well before the Jan. 20 inauguration. These are all things we know.
When considered in one light, it seems like Tesla consumers have officially become fed-up. EV sales of non-Tesla models are indeed continuing to grow. There have been some standouts in the segment, like the Honda Prolgoue, or Chevrolet Equinox EV.
Yet the U.S. EV industry is very much intertwined with Tesla.
Tesla still accounts for the lion’s share of EV sales in the U.S. Hyundai Motor Group finished second last year in EV sales, but a distant second; Tesla sold about five times as many EVs. America’s entire fast-charging infrastructure has hinged its hopes on Tesla’s charging standard and access to its network. And every automaker got into the EV space in the first place not just to meet tough emissions regulations—which they can and do fight all of the time—but to be “viewed more as a tech company” and get the Tesla-grade stock price that every shareholder dreams of. Hell, it’s not inconceivable to think that many people may not even know that other brands make EVs.
“At a high level, it seems like people are not just buying EVs because they’re just wanting a car that’s better for their needs,” Niedermeyer said. Stunts like this could cause Tesla buyers and existing owners to stop and ask, “Do I really need an EV?”
But Tesla’s overall vibe has been seeing a pronounced shift for some time now.
Niedermeyer said that Tesla’s marketing and ethos (and in turn, the whole EV sector) has evolved from helping to stop climate change, and now emphasizes slick, high-tech devices where the electric part is almost secondary to tech and connectivity.
People wanted to be associated with Tesla because it’s a cool car that represented a very particular view of the future. That view of the future has changed quite a bit. Niedermeyer says that this is why Tesla’s sales, despite recent decline, have still remained strong and somewhat insulated by both Musk’s brush with white supremacy and his pivot toward anti-EV policies, like increased off-shore drilling.
“The reason to buy a Tesla had already transitioned from something altruistic,” said Niedermeyer. Sure, some right-wingers may co-sign Musk’s worldview, but they aren’t really buying many EVs in the first place. Many of his largely center-left buyers have been ignorant of or willing to ignore Musk’s shenanigans, because of what the car represents.
That wall has been cracking, especially during the last year.
“I suspect that many would-be left-of-center EV buyers in the U.S. (and other countries) may shun Tesla if there are other options, as there increasingly are. That may show up in vehicle sales, but I think the more important place it will show up is in policies that may curtail Tesla’s ability to be rewarded for its zero carbon vehicles,” said Josh Busby, a Former Senior Climate Advisor for the U.S. Department of Defense, in a Bluesky direct message to InsideEVs.
Musk has been open about his desire to remove the EV tax credit incentives, both on the purchase level and manufacturing side. But, if he does that, that could seriously harm electric demand.
“I know battery and automakers want the manufacturing tax credits to continue, but if you kick out the EV tax credits, who is going to buy the batteries/EVs that they produce?” Busby said. “It seems like Trump is determined to get rid of those. Musk may be influencing that decision, but Trump’s own views seem solidly anti-EV broadly.”
That’s one part of this, for sure. But the salute feels different.
As Niedermeyer said, this is kind of an unprecedented act, mixing caustic social issues and vehicle manufacturing together in ways we’ve not seen, likely ever. Plenty of uninformed people may be able to rationalize away Musk’s Twitter posts, or maybe they don’t pay attention to the news very much at all. There are a surprising amount of Cybertruck buyers who just really do think the truck is a cool-looking device. Hell, even Musk himself is cryptically countering the claims (not directly to the media) on X. Some backup from the Anti-Defamation League helped his cause as well.
Yet the salute had been interpreted by many as an unambiguous, unignorable signal to the world that he stood on the side of white supremacy during a very, very dark time in world history. It’s shaken Tesla owners, some of who want to get rid of their cars but can’t because the financial implications are too dire.
It’s rippled through younger generations, too; even some Fortnite players have requested Epic Games remove the Cybertruck from the game. Heck, check Reddit lately; quite a few Subreddits, including apolitical ones, are calling for a ban on posting X links. I’m already seeing TikTok videos and social media posts of people who feel gross about their cars. I’ve even received text messages from friends who just want out of their Model 3s and need a replacement, pronto.
All of this stuff is now associated with Tesla—it arguably had been over the past year or so, but feels incredibly unambiguous now—and in turn, associated in the minds of some with electric cars. As of publication, Musk has not apologized or directly clarified what he meant by his arm gestures.
Maybe Musk will continue turn everyone off to the kinds of products he, and his company, got the world to embrace. Or maybe it’s just the most irrefutable evidence that white supremacy is a hell of a drug – it’ll make even the most powerful give up on reversing climate change just to make sure brown people don’t get a seat at any table. I know what I saw on Jan 20. I know what it stands for. The EV space in America really can’t take this kind of fallout.
Contact the author: Kevin.Williams@InsideEVs.com
