World’s “biggest” Elon Musk protest staged in Wales
"Don’t buy a Tesla" was raked into the sand by protesters on a Welsh beach alongside a silhouette of Elon Musk giving a Nazi salute.
Image by Led By Donkeys
"Don’t buy a Tesla" was raked into the sand by protesters on a Welsh beach alongside a silhouette of Elon Musk giving a Nazi salute.
A message calling for a Tesla boycott appeared on Black Rock Sands, a popular beach in northern Wales, as part of a stunt by the UK-based protest group Led By Donkeys.
“Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space,” the group said on social media, including posts on Bluesky and X.
Musk, who owns both Tesla and X, has recently become a target of protests – mainly in the US, where he is spearheading President Donald Trump’s controversial cost-cutting measures, and in Europe, where he has expressed support for far-right movements.
The billionaire has been accused of making a “Heil Hitler” salute during Trump’s inauguration event in January, an allegation he has denied.
Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space. Location: Black Rock Sands, Wales, UK Led By Donkeys is 100% funded by small donations.
undefined Led By Donkeys (@ledbydonkeys.org) March 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
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The message was raked into the sand by Tesla driver Prama, who is selling her Model 3 after six years in protest of “Musk’s embrace of the global far-right.” In a video shared by Led By Donkeys, she can be seen creating the image using a harrow attached to her car.
The image reportedly measures 250m x 150m.
“We used to joke that Elon Musk is a real-life Iron Man, but then there’s so many things that have happened,” Prama says in the clip. “He's gone into becoming someone who is obsessed by power, and that's really changed my view on him.”
“And when he started getting onto the tickets of the extreme far-right, that's when I started thinking, 'I'm not really sure I should be driving a Tesla.’”
According to Prama, the “absolute pinnacle” for her decision was the infamous salute, from which she said was “no turning back.”
“My message to anyone who’s thinking about buying a Tesla – don’t. Don’t put your money towards this extremism and division of society. Please, don’t buy a Tesla,” she concludes, echoing the message raked into the sand.
In January, Led By Donkeys and a German protest group Politische Schönheit, or Political Beauty, claimed they projected images of Musk performing a raised-armed salute, accompanied by the word “Heil,” onto the outside of Tesla’s plant in Berlin. An investigation has been opened by the police.
Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin - right now!
undefined Zentrum für Politische Schönheit (@politicalbeauty) January 22, 2025
In cooperation with @ByDonkeys pic.twitter.com/2zQoUV0GRY
Led By Donkeys was founded as an anti-Brexit protest group in 2018 and has since staged numerous protests against right-wing politicians in the UK. Its recent stunts have also included demonstrations in support of Ukraine and Palestine.
Global boycott calls
In addition to peaceful anti-Musk protests, including a guerilla ad campaign in London targeting the billionaire, a number of violent attacks on Tesla cars and showrooms across the US and Europe have been reported in recent weeks.
Eight Teslas were torched outside a dealership in Toulouse, in southern France, earlier this month, while at least four Teslas were set on fire in Berlin last week. In the UK, around 20 cars were damaged in an attack on a Tesla dealership in Belfast just yesterday.
Similar attacks were reported in the US, with Tesla cars vandalized in Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts, among other places.
Tesla sales have been tanking ever since Musk took on a more active political role, with the automaker hit particularly hard in Germany, where sales dropped by 76% in February.
The billionaire faced widespread criticism for what was seen as an attempt to influence Germany’s federal election last month when he threw his support behind the far-right AfD party.
Tesla sales were down 55% in Italy, 53% in Portugal, 48% in Norway and Denmark, 45% in France, and 24% in the Netherlands. In the UK, sales were up 21% despite the backlash against Musk, following a 12% slump in January.
Outside Europe, Tesla sales in Australia were down 72% in February compared to the same month in 2024, while Tesla registrations in the US fell 11% year over year in January.
President Trump blamed the “radical left lunatics” for attempting to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla,” which he called “Elon’s baby.”