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Tesla’s sleek electric vehicles used to be a status symbol in liberal Mill Valley, Calif. Now, they are despised by many — including those who drive them.
April 26, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET
In the parking lots of Mill Valley, Calif., mysterious index cards have surfaced on the windshields of Tesla Model Xs and Model 3s.
“Stop Elon,” they urge in teal script. “Dump your Tesla.”
A few years ago, buying a Tesla in Mill Valley meant that you had money, but were not overly showy. It meant you were a progressive environmentalist who had style.
It meant you belonged.
Ten miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, tucked into the lush, green hills of Marin County, Mill Valley is an idyllic place to live — for those who are wealthy and liberal.
And for years, Teslas were “the Ferrari for the Patagonia-wearing crowd,” said Nathan Ballard, a political consultant who lives in Mill Valley and owns a black Tesla Model S.
But the sleek electric cars have come to mean something else entirely for Mill Valley residents since the presidential election.
Activists elsewhere have set fire to Tesla charging stations, scrawled swastikas into Tesla vehicles and sprayed graffiti on dealerships. The battle raging in Mill Valley is something quieter: an internal war within the minds and hearts of Tesla owners, their environmental ethos clashing with their rage toward Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive.
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