At the risk of beating a dead horse (I suppose it could be worse, I could be getting into politics), humor me as I again delve into the whole electric car/Tesla topic. Specifically, those for the car and those against.

Yesterday it was reported that Tesla lost a considerable amount of money in the first quarter of the year (Erik Shilling at jalopnik.com writes about this here).

I couldn’t help but comment (if you look around the commentary you’ll find some of my musings) when someone pointed out that there are those who are tap dancing to this news. A person on the commentary board wondered why there are those who have such invective for this company.

However, even the most neutral of fans must wonder, based on last quarter’s losses, whether Tesla is in trouble.

I suspect not, even if this quarter’s losses were indeed grim. The technology and the product are so good, IMHO, and it appears the company/Musk are focusing on getting the car out to the world and having success getting other countries interested in it, that I suspect we’ll see the company stabilize and make money, especially when it releases the Model Y, the Semi, and their upcoming new Roadster model and Pickup Trucks (the later might well turn some heads but, as with so much else, we’ll see).

Humor me a second while I put on my Tesla fan hat: What is there to hate about the cars?

I can totally understand people being unhappy/uncomfortable with some of Musk’s antics. I can totally see people asking why they should spend their hard earned money on a company with Mr. Musk as its head.

Which again leads me to the product itself: The cars.

Henry Ford, the man who founded the Ford Motor Company, was anti-semitic and worked with Germany’s Nazi government prior to World War II (you can read about that here). While it may be unfair to compare Ford with Musk given the different epochs in which they lived, can you seriously feel the sometimes silly things Musk has done are in any way comparable with Ford?

And again I return to the main point: The Product.

Ultimately, Tesla will sink or swim based on how good its product is and how potential buyers react to it.

So far, reviews of the various models of their cars have been almost uniformly positive and, as I’ve mentioned, I love my Model 3 and feel it may well be the best car I’ve ever had (and I’ve been driving for many years now).

I suspect many people out there don’t know much about Tesla cars other than seeing them here and there on the streets. They may also know about Musk and some of his antics but otherwise don’t have a strong opinion of the company and its head one way or another.

Yet there clearly are those who are aware of the company and Musk and hate, hate, hate them. Frankly, I can’t get my head around why there is such animus. While I know there are investors out there who are betting on Tesla failing, other than these folks why do so many others hate Musk/Tesla? Are they leery of the idea of moving from a gas to electric vehicle? Are they gas fanatics? Are they so personally repulsed by Musk that they can’t stomach even seeing these vehicles?

I don’t know.

If you have no skin in the game, why do you hate Musk/Tesla so much? Why have you taken this so personally?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again to those who hate Tesla: If you can, try to put aside those negative feelings and take a test drive of one of their vehicles.

If you come away still hating Tesla and its vehicles, then at least you gave them a try and legitimately found they weren’t for you.

But I suspect, strongly, that even the biggest Tesla haters, if they give the car a test drive, will come away realizing the vehicle is incredibly good and, yes, worthy of all the positive opinions given by so many.