Road rage is terrible enough when some idiot thinks they’re entirely within their rights to give you the finger, tailgate or abuse you because of a perceived driving faux pas, but imagine if you copped this kind of abuse simply because of the car you drive.
Electric vehicle drivers are reporting just that. One Aussie motorist recently recounted a bizarre incident of Tesla rage on Facebook: “At a set of lights in Alexandria, Sydney, for no apparent reason at all, an irate man in a Honda SUV pulled up beside me and screamed. ‘Ya think ya saving the f**king world in your s**t car.’ I just burst out laughing, and he drove off while flipping me off.”
Another poster recalled an older man saying Telsa should be banned because they can’t pull a 3.5-tonne horse trailer. “I tried to explain I don’t make a habit of taking a 3.5-tonne horse trailer to my daughter’s swimming lessons, but I don’t think he understood,” the poster wryly explained.
EV drivers under attack
Hilarious, but the comments accompanying each of these posts contain a litany of anecdotes about Tesla drivers being targeted by drivers of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and they’re not funny at all. From the insipid, like Tesla haters making the L sign for loser as they drive past, to the dangerous: tailgating, slamming on the brakes in front of them, to even trying to run them off the road.
It’s ironic when most big-name ICE car brands are now turning their iconic cars electric or building new electric cars on dedicated EV platforms.
Former motoring journo, reformed petrolhead, EV expert and host of Range Anxiety on YouTube, Martin Donnon is now driving his third Tesla. “I have people flipping me the bird when they’re on the opposite side of the road, or they’ll brake-check me. Others will abuse you and mouth off at you out the window at the lights. It’s a great laugh for me, but others might not be so thick-skinned.”
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