UK campaign group stage giant anti-Elon Musk protest on Welsh beach: ‘Don’t buy a Tesla’
Led By Donkeys staged an anti-Elon Musk protest on a Welsh beach that is visible from space. (Led By Donkeys/X)
Political campaign group Led By Donkeys has staged the “world’s biggest Elon Musk protest”, on a beach in north west Wales.
Known for its unforgiving razor-sharp wit, the group used one of Elon Musk’s own cars to spell out the words “Don’t buy a Tesla”, alongside the notorious image of him seemingly giving a “Nazi salute”.
The tech billionaire has denied that the gesture he made at an event marking Donald Trump’s inauguration in January was a Nazi salute.
The protest was staged on Black Rock Sands, also known as Traeth y Greigddu, near Porthmadog, in Gwynedd, and, according to the group, the message can be seen from outer space – which would make it the world’s biggest anti-Musk protest.
‘I’m not sure I should be driving a Tesla’
A video posted on the group’s social media shows Tesla driver Prama sharing her story while creating the message by driving with a rake attached to the rear of the electric car.
“We used to joke that Elon Musk was like a real-life Iron Man but so many things have happened,” she said. “He’s becoming obsessed by power and that’s really changed my view on him.
“That’s when I started thinking, ‘I’m not sure I should be driving a Tesla’.”
Prama mentioned the salute as a point of no return, adding: “My message to anyone who is thinking of buying a Tesla: don’t. Don’t put your money towards this extremism and division of society. Please don’t buy a Tesla.”
Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space.
— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) March 17, 2025
Location: Black Rock Sands, Wales, UK
Led By Donkeys is 100% funded by small donations. pic.twitter.com/G2AT9XWduI
In January, Led By Donkeys projected a five-minute protest video on to the exterior wall of a Tesla factory in Berlin, showing how Elon Musk has continuously backed the far-right across Europe.
“This is the Tesla gigafactory in Berlin,” the Led By Donkeys video begins. “It’s factories like this that have made (Musk) the world’s richest person,” the narrator says, before alleging that he is using that wealth to “promote European far-right parties.”
The video ended with the statement: “European democracy is being threatened by the world’s richest man,” goes on to then describe Musk as a “far-right activist” and encourages a boycott of Tesla.
Tesla’s stock price plummets
Tesla’s stock has been plummeting recently, with Forbes reporting on Monday (17 March) that the share price had dropped almost five per cent to $238 (£183).
Forbes noted that shares of Tesla are down 41% year-to-date, adding, “we struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly.”
JPMorgan analysts have attributed the plunge to “the recent melting of Tesla’s perception, especially in pockets of the world in which Musk inserted himself into right-wing politics, such as Germany.”
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