4 Tesla automobiles had been set on hearth in Germany on Friday, probably the most recent in an ongoing string of protests and vandalism across the globe directed on the automobile company since its CEO, Elon Musk, turned a key determine in President Donald Trump‘s administration.
German police mentioned 4 automobiles had been set ablaze in the Plänterwald and Steglitz neighbourhoods of Berlin in the early morning hours of Friday, including that political motives couldn’t be dominated out.
A burnt-out Tesla automobile stands in the Steglitz district of Berlin, Friday, March 14, 2025, as 4 Teslas are suspected to have been set on hearth in Berlin.
Christophe Gateau / dpa through AP
The primary hearth was reported simply earlier than 2 a.m. native time, and three different fires had been alerted shortly after. German police say that whereas nobody was injured, all 4 automobiles had been broken past use and close by automobiles had been additionally broken.
A burnt-out Tesla automobile stands in the Steglitz district of Berlin, Friday, March 14, 2025, as 4 Teslas are suspected to have been set on hearth in Berlin.
Christophe Gateau / dpa through AP
Current months have seen a slew of focused acts against Tesla, ever since Musk was put in cost of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) by Trump shortly after he took workplace. Since then, the associated fee-chopping physique has fired tens of hundreds of presidency staff, with extra set to observe.
On Thursday, gunshots had been fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon for the second time in per week, inflicting intensive injury to vehicles and showroom home windows, The Related Press stories. An analogous taking pictures occurred per week earlier than, on March 6, on the identical location.
Final weekend, tons of of protesters gathered at a New York Metropolis Tesla showroom to precise their frustration about Musk’s excessive-degree involvement with the U.S. authorities.
Footage captured throughout protests at a Manhattan dealership reveals police eradicating a lot of demonstrators from contained in the premises, the place glass doorways had been shattered.
In the meantime, folks gathered exterior the power may very well be heard chanting, “We’d like clear air, not one other billionaire.”
Protesters are arrested as they collect exterior of a Manhattan Tesla dealership to display against Tesla CEO Elon Musk on March 8, 2025, in New York Metropolis.
Spencer Platt / Getty Pictures)
In March alone, arsonists began fires at a number of Tesla amenities, in the U.S. and abroad.
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The Impartial stories that 12 Tesla automobiles had been set on hearth exterior a dealership in Toulouse, France, on March 5, destroying eight and severely damaging 4. Authorities have since opened a felony investigation.
The identical day, seven Tesla charging stations at a mall in Littleton, Mass., about 60 kilometres exterior of Boston, had been burned, inflicting heavy injury and sending up plumes of thick smoke.
Protesters in a Seattle suburb additionally focused a automobile dealership final weekend, spray-portray swastikas and profanity directed at Musk. In a separate incident in Seattle over the identical weekend, 4 Cybertrucks had been destroyed in a fireplace at a Tesla storage lot, though authorities didn’t verify whether or not the hearth was deliberately set.
ATF investigators and a member of the Seattle Fireplace Division examine burned Tesla Cybertrucks at a Tesla lot in Seattle, Monday, March 10, 2025.
Lindsey Wasson / The Related Press
In January, following a submit-inaugural speech the place Musk made a number of Nazi salute-like motions, U.Ok.- and Germany-based mostly activist teams projected a nonetheless picture of the billionaire tech mogul mid-gesture alongside the phrases “Heil Tesla” onto the surface of the company’s Gigafactory in Berlin.
The projection was accompanied by a social media submit outlining Musk’s ties to a number of excessive proper activists and politicians, together with Germany’s AfD, a political get together recognized for utilizing Nazi imagery to push racist rhetoric and anti-democratic messaging.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks through the inaugural parade inside Capital One Area in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025.
Angela Weiss / AFP through Getty Pictures
Trump, in the meantime, shopped for a brand new Tesla on the White Home driveway on Tuesday, choosing a shiny purple sedan to indicate his assist for Musk’s company following the blowback due to Musk’s work to advance the president’s political agenda and downsize the federal authorities.
Individuals protesting against Tesla must be labelled home terrorists, Trump mentioned on Tuesday through the stunt, including that protestors had been “harming an incredible American company,” and anybody utilizing violence against the electrical carmaker would “undergo hell.”
On his social media platform, Fact Social, Trump blamed Tesla’s share value falls on “radical left lunatics”, who he mentioned had been making an attempt to “illegally and collusively boycott” the agency.
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk communicate to reporters close to a purple Mannequin S Tesla car on the South Garden of the White Home on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington.
Pool / The Canadian Press through AP
It was the most recent — and most uncommon — instance of how Trump has demonstrated loyalty to Musk, who spent closely on his comeback marketing campaign final yr and has been a key determine in his second administration. Tesla’s inventory value elevated almost 4 per cent on Tuesday after dropping virtually 48 per cent since Trump took workplace in January.
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