At least 17 Tesla cars were destroyed after a fire broke out at a dealership on the outskirts of Rome on Monday morning, according to Italian fire officials. No one was at the dealership when the fire broke out and no injuries have been reported.
The fire comes after a string of reports across Italy in recent weeks of Tesla vehicles being vandalized and defaced, with anti-Elon Musk and anti-Donald Trump sentiments written with spray paint.
Another car dealership burned down in northern Rome a week ago, destroying 30 cars, including used Teslas.
Also in Rome, several Teslas in the Garbatella neighborhood were defaced, according to police and social media posts.
Tesla dealerships in Milan have also been targeted by environmental groups in recent weeks.
Reports of Tesla vandalism have also surfaced in France and various parts of the United States, including the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.
It's vaguely comforting to see that as everything seems like utter madness and history lurching in the wrong direction, it basically took one display of open Nazi support to have most of the world tell elon to fuck off
I think the dealership fires and vandalism are insider jobs. The dealers have unsellable merchandise. An insurance payout is about the best they could hope for.
Also shitty cars they can't fix if they break. A burned tesla is a sold tesla where they don't have to pretend to work on. Now they can build even shittier cars, because they go off in flames anyway.
My guess is that Tesla managers decided it's better to cash out the insurance money instead of storing the (swasti)cars that almost nobody will buy. And you can always blame the anti Musk "terrorists".
Pretty sure I saw a news report lately about Teslas getting burned in a wildfire, and IIRC, the batteries were exploding violently and scattering hazardous waste.
I agree, I wouldn’t want to do either. But something like this is a lot more petty than they think it may be so it may not be worth doing unless you’re just going to go all out with it
I'm surprised Trump and Musk aren't up in arms about the "car body count". "Won't somebody think of the children... We want to put to work--on overnight shifts, on school nights--making cars like this!"