Mike Maxwell is the same basic guy today that he was in 2016.
He considers himself center-right in his politics — not an extremist by any stretch. By day, he’s the Salt Lake Chapter chair of a group called the LDS Earth Stewardship. He is mild-mannered.
But he drives political lightning rods.
Maxwell and his wife own two Teslas. He bought one in 2016 and the other, for his wife, in 2020. He was thinking of Utah’s air quality at the time, and he had installed solar panels on his house in order to charge the cars off the grid, making sure he didn’t contribute to coal-generated pollution. More than that, however, he thought the cars were well-engineered and fun.
This isn’t 2016 any more
But 2016 is a lot different from 2025. His Teslas have always induced politically harsh feelings, but now the cars have changed sides, and so have people’s assumptions about him. The cars are rolling metaphors for the societal ills of whichever end of the spectrum is opposite Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Mathews remembers the early days, nine years ago. People would look at his car and assume he was a liberal do-gooder. “That was the time when I had more than one incident with people in large pickup trucks with elevated suspensions and large wheels.”
Maxwell remembers one such encounter, in particular. He was at a Tesla supercharging station in Cedar City, charging his vehicle alongside another Tesla owner, just a few feet from a conventional gas station and convenience store.
A man drove up in a big black pickup with pro-Trump bumper stickers and one that said, “Lock her up!” He started doing screeching, tire-spinning donuts in front of the charging station. Then he deliberately vented black clouds of diesel exhaust at the cars.
“A couple of times I’d be driving down the highway and a large, loud pickup would pull up next to me and rev its engine,” he said. “Then it would move ahead a bit and belch a large amount of smoke.”
Middle fingers were common greetings from these truck drivers.
From liberal to conservative
All that changed in the last three to four months. Now, the right-wingers like him. It’s the liberals he has to watch with a wary eye. The only thing that changed was Musk, who recently began slashing government as the head of President Donald Trump’s new department of energy efficiency.
Once a darling of the left (Musk took a $465 million federal loan during the Obama administration), now he’s the supposed darling of the right. Tesla owners are caught in the spin cycle.
Nationally, the reaction is beginning to get out of hand.
Anti-Tesla violence
The Associated Press reports that cybertrucks have been set on fire. People have shot bullets and hurled Molotov cocktails at Teslas and dealerships.
The AP said a Colorado woman was charged last month in connection with Molotov cocktail attacks and the spray painting of “Nazi cars” on a building.
In South Carolina, federal agents last week arrested a man in connection with setting fires at Tesla charging stations near Charleston. An affidavit signed by an agent said authorities discovered writings critical of the government and DOGE in the man’s bedroom and in his wallet.
It would be hard to find any other material possession, other than a campaign sign or button, that has evoked this kind of visceral intersection between private enterprise and raw politics.
Trump didn’t help matters when he showcased electric vehicles outside the White House. Formerly a critic of electric cars, the president vowed to buy a new Model S for $80,000.
Justice promises a crackdown
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has promised a crackdown on anti-Tesla crimes.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said she’s investigating “how is this being funded, who is behind this.”
“If you’re going to touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, do anything, you better watch out because we’re coming after you,” she said last week on Fox Business Network.
It’s all a bit dizzying for an average right-of-center guy in Utah. Maxwell told me he’s putting his 2020 car up for sale (the 2016 model came with free lifetime charging). Neither car has given him any problems. “Candidly, it’s a very cool and fun piece of technology,” he said. But the company CEO also is making it a liability.
While Maxwell hasn’t personally experienced any vandalism or threats, he’s seeing plenty of reports of them online from other Tesla owners, and they aren’t pretty.
The attacks “are more acrimonious now than when we were considered greenies,” he said.
Stocks tank
The only problem is that the resale price for Teslas keeps dropping. Axios reports the company’s stock is down 42% this year. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seemed to be begging people to buy Tesla stock during a television appearance.
Unlike in 2016, Maxwell now has choices in the electric car market, and he’s looking. All in all, he said, he would prefer a model that doesn’t come bathed in preconceived notions and road rage.