Elon Musk, if you haven’t heard, has pissed off a lot of America. People are out in force protesting at Tesla dealerships. This makes sense, as the majority of Musk’s wealth is tied up in his 13% ownership of Tesla. If its stock tanks, it reduces his massive wealth (to a slightly less massive level).

That said, a lot of people are directing their anger toward Tesla owners. Some have vandalized privately owned Tesla vehicles and torched Supercharger stations. Others are calling on Tesla owners to sell their vehicles.

Selling a Tesla makes no sense and does nothing to slow down Musk’s path of destruction. Furthermore, unless you were already planning to trade in your car, this actually contradicts the very point of owning an EV in the first place. And if you were to trade your Tesla for a non-EV, it would be even worse.

Let’s remember: If you’re anti-Elon because of what he’s been doing to the government, you’re probably at least somewhat liberal and believe in the science of climate change. You understand that people need to make personal changes to reduce their carbon footprint. Trading in a perfectly good car for even an equally clean (or somewhat cleaner) vehicle is actually worse for the environment, since the majority of a new vehicle’s carbon footprint comes from its manufacturing.

Like it or not, Teslas are still the best electric vehicles available and the easiest to live with, especially considering the Supercharger network (which, while open to some non-Teslas, that is still limited to a subset of locations).

Some Tesla drivers are Elon super-fans, for sure—I’d guess a majority of Cybertruck owners are. But chances are, if you see someone in a Model Y—_last year’s best-selling car in the world_—they’re just as disturbed by Elon as you are. Harassing them is just friendly fire. It’s easy to sit behind your Twitter/X/Mastodon/Bluesky client and verbally assault Tesla owners. Instead, I’m asking you to be a little more productive–especially if you haven’t gone out of your way to replace your own oil-burning car with an EV.

Unless Elon is thrown out of Tesla (doubtful), my family has purchased its last Tesla. Which is a shame, because our Model Y is fantastic, and we don’t regret buying it for a minute. The new Model Y looks even better. It deserves to be the best-selling vehicle in the world (in 2024, since Tesla sales have rightfully fallen off a cliff). I wouldn’t tell someone to avoid buying a used Tesla, since they’re usually a great value—used EV prices still haven’t quite figured themselves out.

Going forward, we’re looking at EVs that are assembled in the U.S. and use the NACS (neé Tesla) charging connector. Right now, that means we’re leaning toward Rivian, though I’d prefer our next car be more of a car. I think the Model Y gets the trade-off right for a vehicle that’s 99% on-road but still performs well on loose, rocky, and rutted gravel mountain roads—as I verified on our rural Canadian road trip last summer. Maybe Lucid will get its act together and start making more affordable vehicles with a versatile hatch. Or maybe we’ll see a U.S.-assembled Polestar. Or perhaps Subaru—whose first electric attempt was *lacking*— will make an all-electric Forester, assembled in Indiana—which is really all we need.

So protest at Tesla dealerships, but leave Tesla drivers and their vehicles alone. Same team. We’re already embarrassed. Many of us simply aren’t independently wealthy enough to replace our cars. If you’re a former Tesla driver who has moved on, good on you. But I plan to hang on to mine for many years to come.