It’s okay to boycott Tesla products.
If Elon Musk’s tweets make your teeth itch, if his politics repulse you, or if his general vibe just gives you the ick, fair enough. Buying something is emotional and if seeing a Tesla logo in your garage would make you miserable, you shouldn’t buy one.
But trying to stop a Tesla facility in Adelaide that will:
- reduce waste by giving batteries a second life,
- create exactly the kind of high-value jobs this city needs,
- and clean up contaminated land that’s sat idle for decades…
…because of this one objectionable man?
There are plenty of good reasons to take a stand against Elon’s business interests, but in the case of this project, there are even better reasons to support it.
The site of the proposed Tesla facility in the south of Adelaide.
A Win For Jobs And The Environment
Here’s the deal: Tesla wants to build a battery refurbishment facility at the old Mitsubishi site in Tonsley, about 4 km from my house. The plan is to inspect, test, and repurpose used batteries from EVs and Powerwalls, rather than scrapping them. Along the way, they’ll remediate the site and hire skilled workers in a city that needs both.
The backlash has been huge. Over 200 public objections (95% of submissions) and a fired-up crowd at a recent public meeting. Some raised legitimate concerns – noise, traffic, zoning – which deserve proper scrutiny.
But much of the outrage is not about the project itself. You can see it in the signs, the comments, the tone: they’re not just anti-industrial land use.
They’re anti-Tesla. And let’s be honest, that’s really just code for anti-Elon.
Tesla Is More Than One Man
I get it. I don’t like Elon either. I think he’s a deeply unpleasant bloke, and there’s good reasons to stand up to his agenda. But Tesla isn’t just Elon. It’s thousands of engineers, designers, and workers trying to make energy cleaner and transport smarter.
This is exactly the kind of facility Adelaide should want: low emissions, high-tech, future-focused and job-creating.
If South Australia had blocked Tesla’s Hornsdale Big Battery because people didn’t like the CEO, we’d have missed out on a world-first project that slashed prices, improved grid reliability, and sparked global copycats.
Hate Elon if you want. Boycott the cars, the batteries, the brand.
But don’t block the work. Don’t let your opposition to the bad things Elon is up to derail progress on a positive project.
This isn’t about protecting Adelaide from Elon Musk. It’s about letting Adelaide get on with building the future.
