US products don’t dominate the information technology sector because they are inherently better than alternatives. They dominate because the US is the 800 pound gorilla and it’s just easier to use the defaults the US churns out. Every time a government uses proprietary technology, especially for anything that citizens/residents have to interact with, they give up a bit of their sovereignty. People and businesses that interact with the government shouldn’t be compelled to buy particular products from a foreign company just to interact with their government. I think Europe would be wise to move to open standards as much as possible, and start rolling a lot of their own technology. No, it’s not the easiest choice for the next quarter, or next year, but it will serve them well in the long term. The US is just too volatile.

Canada is definitely ditching the US, why shouldn’t Europe. As an American who will b negatively impacted, I can’t help but still encourage it.

the people that can afford those can afford a lower than desirable resale value

You sound unfamiliar with the average American consumer. Americans tend to buy the most car they think they can afford. They also might have been counting on the fact that electric vehicles cost more up front, but return that value and then some the longer you drive it.

it doesn’t really look like the used market for these has taken that hard of a hit either.

If it does, I might go out and buy myself one. As I said before, we don’t want these vehicles to be retired before their time.

At the very least debadge that heap, when I see that I like to think the owner is trying at least.

I would definitely suggest that people do this, but I wouldn’t call it “the least”, at least in regards to owning a Tesla. Removing the badge is probably the most effective thing they can do. That stuff gets noticed and has an impact. If they sell the car, it will just be bought by someone else and continue to be a billboard for Elon. I see a lot of Teslas in my area and have been looking for badge removals or “Elon bad” bumper stickers, and so far have just seen one without badges.

I could see this administration contracting for 100k cybertrucks for the USPS right before shutting down the USPS.

Plenty of Teslas were bought before most people had any idea that Elon was a fascist sociopathic asshole. Not everyone who bought one can afford to just dump a functioning vehicle with shitty resale value. Anyways, we don’t really want to see every Tesla on the road retired at the same time, so somebody will be driving them.

Cybertrucks are a bit different in my estimation. Anyone who bought a Cybertruck should have known who they were buying it from. Those owners bought that car to signal something, and I think it’s fair to let them know that the signal was received.

Adding in cost of ownership, EVs are cheaper than ICE vehicles. Electricity is way cheaper than gas, and electrics require almost zero maintenance. Also, even 200km meets the needs of a whole lot of drivers just fine. Our family’s secondary vehicle is a Gen-1 leaf with 140km of range and I think we’ve used a public charger 4 times in over 10 years.

On a completely different subject, have you seen those dragon drones being used in Ukraine? Just a cheap drone and a little thermite does soo much damage it’s insane.