If the goal is deterring purchase, then it would actually be most impactful to vandalize teslas that have already been bought. Torching them in a dealership has people going “it sucks to be that dealership.” After all, they didn’t torch any cars that had already been bought, so what is the harm in buying one? If people are only targeting dealerships, you’ll be safe.

Spray painting swastikas on them on the street has people second-guessing whether or not they want to own one personally, because they don’t want to be targeted. Basically, a dealership isn’t personal enough to deter personal ownership. A dealership says “we’re targeting the corporations,” whereas vandalizing individual cars says “we’re targeting every Tesla.” You need something that sends a strong “you could feasibly be next if you buy one” message.

I’m not even saying you’d need to torch them. You’d just need to vandalize them to the point that the owners don’t want to drive them anymore. It’s a pain in the ass to clean, but spray paint can be cleaned off. And also, it doesn’t disable or destroy the car. So you’re not depriving the owner of its use in the long term (except for the psychological “it could happen again” side of things). But it’s enough of a pain in the ass that most people won’t even want to risk owning one in the first place.