The used market Tesla warms up while the owners sell to protest against Elon Musk

In recent months, Ken Harvey has cultivated a grass activity for his Honda and Mazda dealers in northern California: used Teslas sale.

Sometimes a month, Harvey collects some used Teslas in a local automotive auction and offers them for sale, often at surprisingly convenient prices, thanks to a federal tax credit of $ 4,000 that customers get for the purchase of electric vehicles used at the price of less than $ 25,000. Some consumers who qualify for state incentives, said, end up with Berline Model 3 used for far less than $ 20,000, less than half of the cost of a new one.

“We have sold three in the last week, perhaps 20 from the beginning of the year,” said Harvey, whose family has four Honda dealers and two Mazda franchises in the County of Alameda, a suburb of San Francisco, where Tesla has an automotive system.

“We have three in stock now and two are coming,” he added. “They will not stay more than a few days.”

Welcome to the downside of the recitlast medal against Elon Musk, the managing director of Tesla and one of the closest confidents of President Trump – a flourishing used Teslas trade.

The Tesla’s activity was growing for years before Musk and Mr. Trump approached, but their Bonhomie turbocharged it.

After increasing during the pandemic, the growth in sales of new electric vehicles has slowed down in the last two years. This caused Tesla, the main seller of these cars, cutting prices, pushing the value of the models used downwards.

So, after Mr. Musk joined the Trump administration, many Tesla owners throughout the country started selling their vehicles as a form of protest or simply because they no longer wanted to be associated with the company.

That movement has accelerated in the last two months, since Musk has taken care of what he and Trump call the government’s efficiency department. Although not a government department, this federal office was authorized by the president to fire government employees and dismantle the agencies. Some of the statements and actions of Mr. Musk-Tra who an armed hand gesture that many people played as a Nazi greeting-they made the owners of Tesla angry and others who once admired the car manufacturer.

Dr. Jerome Winegarden of Ann Arbor, in Michigan, greeted his Tesla, a model 3. Although he had guided him only 35,000 miles, he exchanged it last month with an electric pickup Ford F-150. The car obtained $ 18,000 as a compromise, well below the original sale price of about $ 40,000.

“I just worried about Elon Musk and what he was doing, and the Nazi greeting was the turning point,” said Dr. Winegarden, 54 years old. “The symbolism was too much too much. I tried the shame just driving the car.”

Tesla did not respond to a commentary request.

In recent weeks, the protests have been flared in the Tesla showrooms and, in some cases, Tesla vehicles, charging stations and buildings have been set on fire or vandalized. A group called Tesla Takedown urged Tesla owners to sell their cars and investors to sell Tesla actions. In the last month, the group has organized dozens of protests in the Tesla showrooms and in other locations in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Abroad, the refusal of Mr. Musk’s policy and his association with Mr. Trump had a pronounced impact on Tesla’s business. His sales in 25 European nations decreased by about 45 % in the first two months of the year, according to Jato Dynamics, a market researcher.

While car analysts believe that the political activities of Mr. Musk play a role in Tesla’s sales trends in the United States, the exact impact is difficult to define, in part because Tesla does not break his US sales. The total of European sales are easier to fill in because the recording data of the new car are released monthly by government agencies.

It is clear that the number of used Teslas for sale in the United States is increasing. Autotrader.com listed about 11,700 used Teslas for sale by private retailers and sellers at the end of March. It expired from about 8,000 to the beginning of the year.

According to another car data supplier, Edmunds, plus Teslas are exchanged with retailers. In March, Teslas of the 2017 or more recent year made 1.4 percent of the vehicles exchanged for new or used cars purchased at dealerships, compared to 0.4 percent of a year ago.

Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of Industry Insights of Cox Automotive, a company that owns Autotrader.com and the business of the car rods, Manheim, observed that Tesla sales went up significantly in 2020 after introducing the Y. and the highest sales could be a reason for the most sold and marketed vehicles.

He said he believed that Mr. Musk’s policy was damaging the Tesla brand, “but we still don’t have enough data to identify exactly what the impact is.

Enzo Costa, sales director of Patrick Dealer Group, a family -run company that has eight dealers in the Chicago area, said many customers were exchanged in Teslas, including 10 last week.

Unlike Mr. Harvey, California dealer, Mr. Costa usually sends Teslas exchanged to wholesale auctions rather than selling them to individuals. This is mainly because Tesla’s prices have been very volatile. In the last month, Costa said, has seen the value of the Teslas used to drop from 10 to 15 percent.

“The Tesla market changes so frequently that I am not going to take risks,” he said. “I’m sending them to auction to get the maximum value from them before they really start falling.”

In California, Harvey said that Teslas demand at affordable prices was solid despite Mr. Musk’s political efforts. Cars appeal to many customers who cannot afford new electric vehicles but want to buy one to avoid high California high petrol prices.

“Let’s see many Share Ride and younger buyers and for the first time they would normally not buy a Tesla,” he said. “For the moment at least, this has become a great opportunity for our dealers and the customer.”

Robert Chiarito AND Anusha bayya Contributed relationships.