The design of the Tesla exhibition hall in fact of perfect targets for Elon events

Elon Musk’s unprecedented Americans’ unprecedented cuts to government services express their dissatisfaction in Tesla exhibition halls, and Musk is not satisfied. “Who finances and organizes all these demonstrations paid?” He recently groaned on X, referring to the wave being Tesla demonstrations to withdrawal take place across the country.

But the best question for Musk could be: “Who built my exhibition rooms in a way that made them also ideal for demonstrations?” Because the answer is: Elon Musk.

Automobile dealers tend to be relegated to the outskirts of major cities, but most of the 276 Tesla exhibition rooms in the United States are located in the middle of animated neighborhoods full of rich progressives. This places them right next to popular stores and lively restaurants, increasing the brand’s visibility and pedestrian traffic. It’s ideal if you want Sell ​​an electric car with status symbol – But perhaps not so ideal when people are in arms about your full-fledged legal functioning and doubtless to empty federal services to millions of Americans.

Musk put his exhibition halls in Tony Blue’s districts for two good reasons. First of all, he needed a way to get around the laws of the state whose manufacturers Sell ​​directly to consumers. So Musk transformed Tesla Lack of sales in person in a sales argument. The cars of a Tesla “gallery” are not there for you buy. Oh my God, no! The dirty exchange of money occurs online. This means that unlike other car dealerships, Musk does not need to park an unsold Hyundian fleet along a six -lane highway in distant blurring of the city. “Our stores,” Musk boasted In 2012, “are designed to be informative and interactive in a delicious way and are simply different from the traditional dealer with several hundred cars in stock that a commanded seller is responsible for selling”.

Second, Teslas is designed for Well -off, progressive and early adoptersNot the F-150 crowd. It is therefore logical to locate the exhibition halls where customers are located. “We deliberately position our store and our galleries in high -visibility retail places, such as shopping centers and shopping streets that people regularly visit in a relatively open mood of purchase,” Musk wrote.

I asked the American Communities project, which maintains a county card by county of the United States which bursts the demographic characteristics, to synchronize its data with the locations of all 276 Tesla exhibition rooms. Indeed, more than half are in what the ACP calls “big cities” or “urban suburbs”. Likewise, covering the locations of the Tesla exhibition hall on neighborhood data (Gracieuse of the National Zoning Atlas) shows that they are mainly in the census sectors designated as “interior suburbs”. These leaflets are less than a third of all districts, but they house more than half of Tesla’s exhibition rooms.

In short, Tesla got into places where people are better educated, high income – and more likely to vote democratic. This means that Tesla’s intelligent exhibition halls have made the company vulnerable to protests by the same people that the exhibition halls were built to attract.

“Just when they won, it seems that they find a way to lose now,” said Dan Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan who is the author of the next book “Direct Hit: How Tesla went directly to consumers and broke the monopoly of car dealerships”. Sales are down, Cybertrucks are set on fireAnd Tesla’s course of action fell by more than 30% this year. “Their retail strategy made them assist in ducks,” said Crane.

People have already protested the automotive dealerships. In the early 2000s, ecological activists In fact Hummers exploded to concessionaires on the west coast. But the Tesla exhibition halls are qualitatively different from those of its rivals. “They are in fact in places where people come together,” explains Dana Fisher, sociologist at the American University who is the author of “American Resistance”.

Tesla has built its stores to attract progressive urbanites – exactly people who now protest Musk and Tesla

This is important for protest strategyBecause this means that Tesla exhibition halls are located near public spaces such as sidewalks, where it is legal to stage a demonstration. No one has to encroach on a car field. And a Tesla store in an outdoor shopping center or a lively shopping street puts demonstrators in the faces of Tesla potential buyers. “The objective here is to shame consumers with their purchasing decisions,” explains Fisher. “To protest against a brand, it’s great to be able to go to a dealership.”

This would not make sense to protest against one of the hotels or golf courses of Donald Trump – they are strongly kept, they are too far from everything, and the wealthy people patron have already chosen a side. But if you want to put pressure on Elon Musk’s original portfolio of origin, the addresses of 276 possible protest locations are there on the Tesla website. “Tesla’s installations are essentially the most common, most famous and visible symbols of Elon Musk, and Elon Musk is the best known and visible symbol of the cruelty, inhumanity and the incompetence of this administration,” explains Patrice Kopistansky, a retired government lawyer who helped organize Tesla protests in Virginia.

The locations help, Kopistansky tells me. The Tesla exhibition hall in Tysons Corner is surrounded by other high -end car dealerships, but these operations are fixed from the sidewalk, in the middle of many unbucked cars. Tesla’s building is close to the street, which facilitates sticking. “I don’t know why they built it like that,” said Kopistansky. “They probably came to regret it.”

And as a bonus? When Tesla drivers stop at nearby traffic light, the demonstrators can offer them printed bumper stickers for the occasion: “Sorry to have bought a Tesla!”

Adam Rogers is a main correspondent at Business Insider.