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Embarrassed to be driving a Tesla these days? You’re not alone.
Tesla is ubiquitous. Following Election Day, the company’s shares broke the $1 trillion mark, making the electric vehicle manufacturer more valuable than the next 15 automakers combined. Much of that is because Elon Musk’s company is likely to benefit from its CEO having President-elect Donald Trump’s ear. But it’s also because Teslas are good EVs — the Model Y is one of Heatmap’s top picks for someone who wants to make a stress-free switch away from gasoline.
The problem is, well, Elon. Though 35% of respondents to a Heatmap poll last winter said the controversial and erratic executive made them more likely to want to purchase a Tesla, there are plenty of people who wouldn’t be caught dead in an EV that in any way benefits the newly minted government efficiency crusader.
But what about all those people who purchased Teslas before Musk went full MAGA? For them, there’s a solution in the form of bumper stickers produced by Matthew Hiller of Waikiki, Hawaii. Hiller’s side hustle, Mad Puffer Stickers, gives Tesla owners a way to disavow the company’s CEO in the form of a no Elon sticker, an Anti-Elon Tesla Club sticker, or one that spells it all out: “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” As you might expect, business is booming.
Last night, I caught up with Hiller about his unexpected success. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you begin making anti-Elon Musk stickers?
I started making stickers on my own before the Elon sticker. I work at an aquarium, so I did a lot of fish stickers. I always had an interest in making stickers — I knew how to make them, and how to put the designs and cute phrases on them.
The point came in maybe February or January of 2023. I had been wanting to buy a Tesla, but at that point, I started to notice how far off the rails Elon had been going. When he bought Twitter, he started extreme censoring of information, taking verification marks off The New York Times and things like that to sow discontent, disinformation, and push his agenda. And it was ugly. I couldn’t believe this man was using his power like this, and I immediately did not want to support him in any way. I figured, there’s no way I’m buying a Tesla — but there have got to be so many people who are so embarrassed to be repping him on the streets driving their Teslas and who want to completely disavow this guy. Because I know I would want to sell mine immediately after I saw what he was doing.
So I made the first sticker, which said, “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” I printed up a very small run at first and just threw it in my shop. It took a while for the first sale, but after it got rolling, some people started posting pictures. It went viral a couple of times and I would see a burst of sales, and then it would quiet down. I would be selling five to seven a day, and then suddenly, there would be 50 a day because someone else talked about it on Reddit.
And now, at this point, it’s gone insane.
Have your sales gone up since the election?
Absolutely. Unbelievably.
There were major points when the sales spiked beyond anything that had happened before. The first time was when Elon went on stage with Trump at one of the rallies, and that solidified what everybody already knew: that he was in the tank for Trump, and he was going to put his full fortune behind getting the guy elected.
Then after the election, there was another huge bunch of sales because people were like, “Oh my God, this guy is now going to have a part in this government.” This was so in-your-face and so disgusting — he’s just filling Trump’s coffers with his money in exchange for position and power and influence. And it showed in the sales that other people thought so, too: I must have sold probably 250 or 300 that day, and it’s been steady ever since. I can barely keep up. My full-time job is at the aquarium, and I come home and pack stickers until 11 p.m. It’s just me and my wife doing it all.
Can you give me a ballpark of how many you’ve sold?
Definitely over 10,000. I think today we’re at about 180 [per day] — and that’s across all my stickers, not just the anti-Elon sticker. But it’s been around 100-plus every day for weeks now. It’s rough.
Which is the most popular design?
The most popular is the OG, the “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” It’s the only one that I have that is a traditional long bumper sticker, rectangular. And I’m a little upset that it’s the most popular because it’s the hardest one to ship because of the odd-size envelopes. For all the other ones, it’s easier. But that’s the most popular one by far.
It’s currently the No. 4 best-selling bumper sticker on Amazon. It had been #1 at a few different points. At one point it was beating both Trump and Kamala stickers. And I was like, “That’s insane. People hate Elon more than they love Trump or Kamala?”
Have you sold to any Cybertruck owners, as far as you’re aware?
I have no idea. I don’t think so — I mean, everyone knew he was crazy by the time the Cybertruck came out. People buying the Cybertruck are all in.
I saw on Instagram that you dropped off some stickers at a Tesla dealership?
That was a while ago. I didn’t take stickers; I believe I had a key chain at that point. I dropped them around the store just for the heck of it, to try to drum up some interest in anti-Elon sentiment. Maybe it’d find the right person, you never know. I wish I had more time to focus on social media, but I just don’t.
Do you have any more anti-Elon sticker design plans?
There’s one that’s a little more general, and it just says, “No more billionaires.” Elon is the main problem: He’s probably the worst billionaire, but he’s not the only problem. So maybe that sticker will end up on a Tesla, too.
Will you keep making your fish stickers now that your anti-Elon business has taken off?
Yeah. I have the ideas banked, I just don’t bother printing them at this point. There’s no point — I’m swamped with what I’ve got. But yeah, absolutely. If I have a really good one, I’ll print it for the aquarium, but not my own personal store. At this point, I’m all Elon, all the time.
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On COP29 funding goals, congestion pricing, and the Cybertruck
Current conditions: Smog in India has obscured views of the towering Taj Mahal • Thousands of people have evacuated Málaga, Spain, due to extreme flooding • Most of the U.S. will experience higher-than-average temperatures through the end of the week.
Developing nations will need at least $1 trillion a year in climate finance by 2030, growing to $1.3 trillion by 2035, according to new analysis from economists with the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance. The study was released as negotiators continue to hammer out a new climate finance goal at COP29. The current funding goal – $100 billion per year – was agreed in 2009. Meanwhile, Brazil unveiled its new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) yesterday. The country aims to cut emissions between 59% and 67% by 2035 compared to 2005 levels and “gradually replace” the use of fossil fuels. But as Climate Home Newsreported, “the South American nation is also planning to increase oil and gas production by 36% by the same year.” The U.S. is expected to announce its new NDC at the climate summit.
A new report published this morning finds that projections for temperature increases through 2100 remain stagnant for the third year in a row. The research group Climate Action Tracker found that the world is likely to warm by 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. But there’s a 50% chance the number could be lower – or higher. By 2030, temperatures are now expected to rise somewhere between 1.9 and 2.6 degrees Celsius (3.4 and 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit), a slight uptick thanks to “minimal progress” from governments in strengthening emissions targets. “Mixed signals from the political space are canceling each other out and clearly hindering progress in climate action,” the report said. “COP29 must be an enabling COP, delivering concrete outcomes to translate the pledges made last year into real-world, real-economy results.”
Climate Action Tracker
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will re-introduce a plan to introduce congestion pricing for vehicles traveling into Lower Manhattan, but the fees will be significantly lower than those in the original proposal: $9 compared to $15. The plan could be fast-tracked for approval by next week and could go into effect before January, The New York Timesreported, “a time frame that aims to pre-empt [President-elect Donald] Trump’s vows to kill the program.”
The storm system churning in the Caribbean is expected to become Tropical Storm Sara today and poses a “catastrophic risk to lives and property” in Honduras, Belize, and Nicaragua. Areas in Central America with steep terrain “are especially vulnerable to flooding,” AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jon Porter said. Tropical storm and hurricane alerts have been issued for the region. The National Hurricane Center warns of dangerous flash flooding and mudslides. The storm could strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend, though its trajectory is uncertain and Floridians are advised to keep an eye on the situation.
NOAA and NHC
Tesla issued another recall for the Cybertruck this week due to a fault with the drive inverter that “may cause it to stop producing torque. If the inverter stops producing torque, the driver loses the ability to apply torque to the vehicle using the accelerator pedal resulting in a loss of propulsion, which may increase the risk of a collision.” This is the Cybertruck’s sixth recall, and it applies to about 2,400 trucks. This particular fault can’t be fixed with a software update, so vehicles have to be serviced and the inverter replaced.
Researchers have discovered the world’s largest known coral colony in the Solomon Islands. Measuring 111 feet wide, 105 feet long, and 18 feet tall, the mega coral is estimated to be at least 300 years old. Its location deep down in cool waters may help protect it from rising temperatures.
They grew up on Biden-era climate regulations and tax credits. What happens now?
A mere two years ago, climate world was awash in optimism as the tax credits in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden-era legislation opened up exciting opportunities for climate tech companies. Now, Trump has said he wants to repeal the IRA in its entirety and “terminate” all of its unspent funds. So what becomes of the crop of startups that were either born directly out of or buoyed by IRA incentives and other positive policy developments?
Let’s take a look at a few examples. First there’s Crux, a marketplace for the transferable clean energy tax credits unlocked by the IRA. There’s also Watershed, a $1.8 billion software startup that helps businesses track and reduce their carbon emissions. And there’s Quilt, which makes a sleek, small, and expensive electric heat pump.
If they’re worried about what will happen to their business under a Republican trifecta, they’re certainly not talking about it. In the week since the election I've gotten used to hearing a couple primary refrains. One: Everyone obviously wants to create and invest in tech that can weather changing political tides and compete on market fundamentals alone. And two: Red states disproportionately benefit from the IRA.
Crux, for example, generates revenue by charging transaction fees for the tax credits that are bought and sold on its platform, thus tying its business model to these tax credits’ continued existence. Since the startup began facilitating transactions last year, however, CEO Alfred Johnson told me the market has been dominated by credits associated with solar, wind, and advanced manufacturing, none of which are thought to be at a particularly high risk of deletion.
Who knows with Trump, though. There’s certainly no doubt that the priorities of his administration will be quite different from those of Biden’s, and that gives rise to a lot of what-ifs. For example: If Trump guts the Department of Energy overall, eliminating or hollowing out the Loan Programs Office and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, presumably far less clean tech requiring huge infrastructure investment will get built. And that will mean fewer tax credits to trade.
Johnson agrees, calling this “a real cause for concern” for emergent technologies overall. So essentially, Johnson is banking on there beingenoughbipartisan support for enoughtax credits and enough new project buildout that the market keeps humming right along, even as specific energy priorities change.
“The number of times that Trump has talked about nuclear energy or domestic manufacturing as big objectives of his campaign and administration is extremely high,” Johnson noted. “And transferability is already the mechanism by which you'll drive additional dollars into those markets.”
And then there’s Watershed, the unicorn software company founded in 2019 on the premise that global corporate sustainability reporting was on a steady upwards trajectory, driven by pressure from customers and investors as well as impending regulations, including domestic climate disclosure rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, it seems relatively safe to say that under Trump, those (already long-delayed) rules will probably never see the light of day.
Watershed co-founder Taylor Francis told me that’s not as big a problem as you might expect for a company that makes its money selling emissions-tracking software to large companies. Why not? Europe and California, mostly. Each has its own respective reporting requirements that will go into effect in the next few years, he explained. In the EU, it’s the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which applies to all medium-to-large companies in the region, plus any non-EU companies with over €150 million in annual revenue there, while California’s climate disclosure law applies to any company doing business in the state that has at least $1 billion in global revenue.
“It is very hard to think about any large company that does not fall into one of those two buckets,” Francis told me. “And those things are unconnected from who's in the White House.” Though the SEC rules would have been a boon to Watershed’s business, Francis said that since they’re already stuck in court due to challenges from Republican-led states, the company wasn’t banking on federal climate disclosure policy to be enacted under either administration.
A tax credit that supports residential energy efficiency could be in real danger though. This credit makes things such as insulation, energy-efficient windows, and heating and cooling systems such as heat pumps more affordable for homeowners. And that, of course, could be bad news for companies working in these spaces, including Quilt, which seeks to create “the Tesla of heat pumps.” The current credit allows homeowners to claim up to $2,000 on the purchase of their heat pump, but Quilt’s CEO Paul Lambert told me that he doesn’t think this has made any real difference in consumer uptake thus far.
“It's a nice-to-have,” he said of the tax credit. “But if you asked me, ‘How many Quilt customers would not have purchased Quilt had that not existed?’ I think the answer is zero.” Right now this high-performance heat pump is only available in San Francisco, where many tech enthusiasts have both money to spend and an entrepreneurial attitude when it comes to early adoption. And while the upfront costs of heat pumps are high, they eventually pay for themselves in energy savings — though Lambert also acknowledged that as the company expands into more markets, it will encounter more price-sensitive customers who may be put off by the high sticker price.
Even if the energy efficiency tax credit gets nixed, heat pump adoption could still be aided by another IRA provision, the Home Energy Rebates Program, which provides low- to moderate-income households with savings of up to $8,000 on heat pumps alone, with additional money available for other electric appliances. These programs are state-administered, and only 10 states plus Washington D.C. have launched their programs so far. Once money gets disbursed, it will get much trickier for Trump to eliminate these programs. But the many states that are still preparing their applications or awaiting approval could be at risk of getting their funding pulled.
Lambert chooses to see the bright side of an increased reliance on state and local level policy. “A lot of states are going to feel like they need to step up and pick up the ball where it may have been dropped,” he told me, also noting that “a lot of the rebates we’re benefiting from now at a local level and state level were made in reaction to the first Trump presidency.”
It’s an optimistic sentiment that I’ve heard from investors, as well — that there’s nothing as energizing as a climate foe in the White House to motivate states and even philanthropists to pick up the slack. But at the end of the day, there’s also nothing that quite replaces the hundreds of billions the IRA poured into energy and climate initiatives, and the trillions that it’s set to unlock in additional funding for renewable energy technologies.
Current conditions: A brush fire caused major delays to Amtrak journeys along the East Coast • More flood alerts have been issued for Spain as new storms loom • It’s cloudy in Washington, where President Biden will host President-elect Donald Trump at the White House today.
Global fossil fuel emissions are projected to rise again this year, and there is “no sign” of a peak, according to the Global Carbon Project. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil, gas, and coal in 2024 will hit about 37.4 billion metric tons, up 0.8% from 2023. Total CO2 emissions – including from land-use changes like deforestation and wildfires – will rise to 41.6 billion metric tons, up from 40.6 billion metric tons last year. Projected emissions vary on a regional level: China’s are expected to rise by 0.2%, while U.S. emissions are expected to fall 0.6%. India’s will be up 4.6%, while the EU’s will be down by nearly 4%. Notably, emissions from land-use changes have been falling for a decade but are set to rise this year. And then there’s this sobering reminder: “Current levels of technology-based Carbon Dioxide Removal (excluding nature-based means such as reforestation) only account for about one-millionth of the CO2 emitted from fossil fuels.” The research team behind the project estimates that the 1.5 degrees Celsius target will be breached in six years.
Relatedly, in a speech at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, asked: “What does it mean for the future of the world if the biggest polluters continue as usual? What on Earth are we doing in this gathering, over and over and over, if there is no common political will on the horizon to go beyond words and unite for meaningful action?”
In other news from Baku, nations have been debating the draft text for a new climate finance goal, the most anticipated initiative at this year’s conference. Carbon Brief’s Josh Gabbatiss reported that the text had “ballooned” from 9 pages to 34. “Before there were just 3 options for what the goal would look like – now there are also 13 ‘sub-options,’” he said. A large number of developing countries reportedly rejected the original document, asking for at least $1.3 trillion in adaptation finance and saying they don’t want to broaden the contributor base to include China and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, developed countries “are indicating that they don’t want to commit to providing more than $100 billion a year unless the contributor base is expanded,” Climate Home Newsreported. A new draft text on the finance goal is expected later today.
The $5 billion deal between Rivian and Volkswagen Group, announced back in June, was finalized this week. And it’s about 16% bigger than initially thought, according toTechCrunch. Volkswagen will actually invest up to $5.8 billion in the electric pickup maker through 2027. The partnership will provide an influx of capital for Rivian, while VW gets access to the EV company’s technology. The joint venture kicks off today.
The most important legal challenge for the renewables industry in America may have just been filed in Michigan, reported Jael Holzman in a Heatmap exclusive. On Friday afternoon, about 70 towns and a handful of Michigan counties appealed the rule implementing part of a new renewable energy siting law – PA 233 – providing primary permitting authority to the Michigan Public Services Commission and usurping local approval powers in specific cases. The law was part of a comprehensive permitting package passed last year by the state legislature and seen by climate advocates as a potential model for combatting NIMBYs across the country. The appeal challenges multiple aspects of the law’s implementation, saying it went beyond statute, as well as the rulemaking procedure itself, claiming it failed to follow proper processes. “The lawsuit aims to effectively undo the law going into effect,” Holzman explained, “or at least enjoin what opponents say are the most onerous restrictions on municipalities and county governments.”
Forecasters are watching a tropical development in the western Caribbean that is expected to strengthen into Sara, the 18th named storm of the season and the 12th hurricane. The storm could strike Florida as a hurricane next week, according to AccuWeather, just weeks after Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck the state. “Should the feature become a hurricane, it would be the 12th of the season, which is a testament to the supercharged nature of the season, where the historical average is seven hurricanes,” said AccuWeather’s hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.
AccuWeather
“There is no national security, there is no economic security, there is no global security, without climate security.” –U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking at COP29.