Tesla owners are disguising their cars with fake badges as a form of resistance

[ResidentialBusiness]

For regretful Tesla owners who don’t want fellow motorists to mistake the vehicle they’re driving as a show of support for CEO Elon Musk, they can always try rebadging it.

While sales of anti-Musk bumper stickers with messages like “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy” have surged since President Donald Trump’s election win last November, some Tesla owners are opting for a disguise instead. Looking for a visual way to distance themselves from Trump’s biggest campaign donor—who now leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—some owners have pulled Tesla badges off their cars and replaced them with other automakers’ branding marks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by COURIER (@couriernewsroom)

Photos on social media show cars with the distinctive, streamlined Tesla silhouette carrying badges for Mazda, Honda, Audi, and Rivian. Others have opted to take the Tesla branding off and leave their vehicle blank.

“Once every symbol that they put on there is gone, the whole thing becomes more clearly, I think, a statement,” Jordan Schwartz, a man who removed Tesla badges from his Model Y and from a friend’s car in the Seattle area, told KUOW.

[Image: Tesla]

How to remove your Tesla badge

Tesla’s own service manual says to remove its badges, position a monofilament line, which can be used for fishing, under a corner of the badge and make a sawing motion to remove it; clean off any remaining residue with isopropyl alcohol wipes. Online, Tesla owners are sharing their own tips. Many recommend using a heat gun or hairdryer to pull the badges off more easily, and one commenter on a Reddit thread claimed he used dental floss. Finding replacement badges from other car brands can be as simple as searching on Amazon and eBay.

While such disguises might not fool everyone, some Tesla owners see reason to take a symbol that’s become a political target off their vehicles. Since Musk’s taken a very public role in slashing government agencies, Tesla showrooms have become protest zones, and Tesla vehicles and charging stations have been vandalized. Tesla’s stock price has also suffered, with the carmaker losing more than half its value since December.

Drivers don’t always notice details about the cars around them, but keep your eyes peeled. The Mazda 3 or Honda Civic you’re sitting behind in traffic might actually be a Tesla in disguise.

---

View the full article