“I bought this before Elon went crazy.” Stickers with this or similar slogans—some even more drastic, like ”…before we realized Elon is crazy”—are increasingly appearing on electric cars from what was once the darling of the stock market. But this challenger to the German automotive industry has now been punished with a 40% drop in value.
Some Tesla owners are rebranding their cars, slapping on Mercedes stars or Toyota badges. Others are offloading their Teslas at bargain prices because there are no buyers for used ones. And why would there be? In Germany alone, new Tesla registrations dropped by 75% in February. A German used-car platform has already complained about having over a thousand Teslas listed—cars that simply aren’t selling. In the U.S., where EVs have never been a status symbol for Republicans, Tesla sales have plummeted just as sharply.
Even for Democrats, Tesla is no longer a brand people want to be seen with. Former astronaut Mark Kelly, now a Democratic U.S. senator, posted a viral video (see picture) —ironically on Musk’s own platform, X—returning his Tesla because, in his words, he doesn’t want to drive a car “designed by an asshole.” Kelly’s stunt was a direct response to Musk calling him a “traitor” after his visit to Kyiv.
Swapping a Tesla for another EV is easy. The real challenge lies in sourcing critical American-made components. Already, hundreds of U.S. companies have formally raised concerns with the U.S. Department of Commerce, warning that a looming trade war could force them to scale back production or drive up costs due to essential components that are either exorbitantly expensive, difficult to source, or unavailable outside Europe. Even Tesla itself is among those petitioning for relief.
But is this “Tesla moment” actually a precursor to a broader “Don’t buy American” movement in Europe? The signs are mounting.
While the U.S. is already restricting digital services like intelligence-sharing for Ukraine—and even Elon Musk’s Starlink network is being reconsidered as a communication tool for the Ukrainian military—Europeans are starting to ask themselves which American services they might do without.
Germany’s RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland has already compiled a list of alternatives to U.S. tech: Mozilla Firefox instead of Google Chrome, Freenet, GMX, or web.de for email instead of Gmail, Switzerland’s Threema instead of WhatsApp, DuckDuckGo as a search engine rather than Google, and Aleph Alpha instead of ChatGPT. And, of course, life without Instagram and Facebook is possible too.
Another potential wedge issue is the core principle of the European Cloud Act, which mandates that personal or otherwise sensitive data must not be stored on servers outside the EU. Interpreted strictly, this law could effectively push unwanted American providers out of the European market, given that none of them have been able to unequivocally prove that European corporate data doesn’t ultimately end up in the NSA’s global server network. And we all remember Angela Merkel’s outraged declaration: “Spying among friends—this is unacceptable.” By now, we know: It happens anyway. What we don’t know is whether we’re still friends.
Yet, the situation isn’t that simple. And even if it were, it wouldn’t be smart to act rashly. Replacing, say, Oracle databases with a European equivalent could take years and cost millions. Even SAP couldn’t function without Microsoft products. It’s safe to estimate that 90% of German midsize businesses rely on Microsoft Office to operate.
Many American companies, though, don’t even register as American in the minds of consumers. Procter & Gamble and Mondelez hide behind beloved German household brands. And IT giants like Microsoft engage with Germany’s small and midsize businesses primarily through a network of 30,000 local partners. These companies now face a crucial challenge: maintaining a German narrative.
The worst move would be to centralize communications and present themselves as purely U.S.-based corporations.
Because the truth is, no one seriously wants to abandon U.S. products entirely. Yet, a sentiment is growing—one that echoes the “Ami go home” rhetoric of Germany’s student protests in the late ’60s. There’s nothing wrong with Europe asserting its strengths and prioritizing its own defense systems rather than deepening reliance on American suppliers—or worse, subjecting itself to the whims of a future Trump administration. But even these European defense systems contain plenty of U.S. patents. We neither can nor want to fully disentangle ourselves.
When we eventually emerge from this Trump-Musk virus pandemic, “we will have a lot to forgive each other.” It’s crucial to interpret the Tesla moment correctly. Even Musk is now learning what it feels like to be on the receiving end of slash-and-burn politics. But in the end, we will find our way back to each other. That, too, would be a Tesla moment.
P.S.: This blog post was created with American support. It was written using Microsoft Office on Microsoft Windows, backed up to Microsoft Cloud, and emailed via Google’s Gmail. But the website where it’s published? That runs on a server owned by 1&1’s subsidiary, Ionos.