EV owner loves his Teslas, has less affection for pioneering company’s Trump-affiliated CEO

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This article was published 01/03/2025 (234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Larry Hochman doesn’t plan on ditching his beloved Teslas.

But the proud owner of two of Elon Musk’s vehicles — a 2023 Model 3 Performance and the polarizing Cybertruck — says he’s no fan of the company’s controversial chief executive officer.

“As long as Musk keeps his crap in the States, I’m fine,” Hochman said Friday.

Hochman purchased his first Tesla — a Model 3 — in 2018, a car that has since been passed down to his daughter and son-in-law.

A day after Musk announced the Cybertruck in November 2019, he put his name on the waiting list for the top-trim Cyberbeast model.

It took five years, but in November he finally took delivery of one of the first to arrive in Winnipeg.

Hochman said he’s not worried that driving either of his Teslas will lead to people think he’s a Musk supporter, nor is he worried about misplaced anger leading to vandalism of his vehicles.

“If someone is going to vandalize it, let them be an idiot,” he said.

Still, he’s received a bit of hate.

“With the Cybertruck, I’ve had people give me the finger,” Hochman said. “Very few, but it’s funny. A couple of days ago driving home from work, I go down Highway 59 towards Birds Hill, and these young kids in a little car were giving me the finger and laughing. I was giving the finger to them and laughing. They were taking video. Then they pulled up beside me and we had a great chat.

“They loved it. They were just being goofs.”

Hochman said 99 per cent of his interactions while driving the truck have been positive, with the vehicle itself a great conversation starter for motoring enthusiasts and children just curious about what it is.

“Even the police pulled me over, just wanting to see it,” he said. “I have no problem chatting with people about it.”

Nott Autocorp owner Trevor Nott, who sells and services used Tesla vehicles at his independent dealership, took some flak this week after publicly distancing himself from Musk.

Nott, who specializes in high-end used vehicles, said Friday he had to turn off the comment section of his Facebook post, where he set out to ensure customers knew he’s not in business with or a franchisee of Tesla.

“I was kind of pissed (about) the way (Musk and the Trump administration) is treating Canada,” Nott said. “I realized I’m probably risking sabotaging his business by saying that, because Tesla is our best-seller. But I’m willing to risk that, more ethically than anything.”

Trump has promised to impose crippling 25 per cent tariffs on goods imported from Canada, beginning Tuesday and has repeatedly threatened to annex the country and make it the 51st state.

Musk, who has taken on a prominent, but unelected, role in the U.S. administration, is spearheading the elimination of a massive portion of the federal civil service.

Nott said he has received mostly positive responses to his post and after Friday’s story about it in the Free Press.

“I knew making the statement I did, there would be haters that are heavy Trump and Musk (supporters),” he said. “Some are just huge Tesla fans and I am a fan of the product. I’m just not a huge fan of the man’s politics and how they’re treating Canadians.”

A manager at Winnipeg’s Tesla dealership in the Waverley Automall declined to comment on any impact in sales, offering only to forward inquiries to the company’s public relations department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hochman, meanwhile, said his vehicles were purchased before Musk took a hard turn to the right, so to speak, but feels Tesla’s EVs are the best on the market in terms of what they offer. The first Tesla vehicle rolled off the assembly line in 2008.

Initially the vehicles were few and far between on Winnipeg streets, but Model 3s and Model Ys are ubiquitous now, suggesting people have paid a lot of money to go electric and help the environment.

Still, Hochman understands there will be people cancelling orders, selling their current vehicles and looking away from Tesla as a brand altogether, given the current political climate.

“Would I sell mine? No,” he said. “Everyone has their own opinions.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca