Recently, there has been a rash of vandalism targeting Teslas, and with a sharper focus on these events, it's quickly clear that the problem has been happening since before the 2024 election escalated Tesla CEO Elon Musk's political involvement. One Reddit poster documented an early incident back in September that was at least somewhat pacifistic.
The post shows a picture of a masked man captured by a security camera. In the caption, the poster explains he got permission from his apartment complex to charge his Tesla on the side of his building.
But in the middle of the night, this masked man put the adapter on his windshield and moved his cable from the sidewalk, with no apparent damage done beyond a significant loss in charging power. The poster asked, "Is there a lock I can buy that keeps the adapter in place?"
The switch to an electric vehicle comes with a wide range of benefits.
First, it saves you money. Drivers of electric vehicles save tons because they don't have to fill their cars up with expensive gas. And car maintenance costs are much less on electric vehicles than on traditional gas-guzzling cars.
They are also much better for the environment.
On a micro scale, electric vehicles don't burn gas or oil, which means they don't emit any tailpipe pollution. This leads to healthier, safer air for everyone. But on a macro scale, more electric vehicles mean less demand for oil and gas, which means less drilling that can also be extremely destructive to the health of our planet.
Recently, there has been an uptick in vandalism to Tesla vehicles, which most analysts attribute to Musk and his involvement in the U.S. government by largely cutting programs, aid, and jobs, as well as his activity in world politics more broadly.
However, acts of vandalism targeting electric vehicles are extremely frustrating. These illegal acts could discourage potential consumers from making the switch, and quite frankly, that's bad for the planet. And unfortunately, there has been no shortage of incidents targeting electric vehicles and their charging stations.
Some critics of electric vehicles point out that there is pollution created in the manufacturing and charging of electric car batteries. But it should also be noted that this pollution is much less than what a car burning dirty fuel would produce.
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Critics also point out that the mining of minerals used in the batteries can be destructive to ecosystems. But the goal is to replace the mining of dirty energy sources like coal, oil, and gas with mining that produces clean energy. And the methods for extracting those minerals are getting safer and cleaner as technology advances.
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Commenters on the original post were sympathetic.
One said, "The guy in the photo seems pretty jealous."
Another suggested a practical solution: "Buy a charger lock."
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