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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.

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[-] SippyCup@feddit.nl 67 points 3 weeks ago

Couldn't have been. I was with the fire all night, we were miles away

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 45 points 3 weeks ago

Those Tesla batteries are spontaneously combusting now?

[-] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 27 points 3 weeks ago

Yes.

This is completely unrelated to panels falling off of their incel-camino model.

I think those have fireball batteries as well.

[-] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 39 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[-] Serpent@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago

But it would translate into higher premiums going forwards. Doesn't seem like sustainable business practice.

[-] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

If they make higher premiums specific for teslas, then those dealerships can just stop working with teslas.

[-] ilost7489@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago

Tesla owns their dealerships rather than franchising them. Either way, higher premiums or less Tesla dealers is a win win

[-] cm0002@lemmy.world 38 points 3 weeks ago
[-] CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world 37 points 3 weeks ago

It's actually astonishing how fast Tesla went from the most sought-after brand to becoming the most hated brand.

There are going to be case studies on this for centuries in all kinds of sciences.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 weeks ago

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

[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 1 points 3 weeks ago

Today i saw a tesla with a sticker that says: i bought this before we knew elon was crazy.

Somehow this made me so mad. Don't drag other people into that just because you found that out this year.

[-] ammonium@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

How is sticking a sticker on your car dragging other people into something?

[-] GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world 32 points 3 weeks ago

Must have been act of god. Thoughts and prayers.

[-] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 23 points 3 weeks ago

And nothing of value was lost.

[-] axh@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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".

[-] DancingBear@midwest.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

Swasticars…. I like it

[-] carrion0409@lemm.ee 16 points 3 weeks ago

Elons going deep into the k hole after this one

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 14 points 3 weeks ago

If we're lucky, he'll go visit Matthew Perry.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 weeks ago

Kinda disrespectful to Matthew Perry to say they'll meet in the same place, which I assume for Musk is Satan's unwashed taint.

[-] Art3sian@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

“Democrats did it.”

-Elon Musk.

[-] Allonzee@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

If only Democrats were that cool, we wouldn't be in this situation.

[-] Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago

Hitting a production line would be way more costly for k hole boy

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

But also a lot more difficult and dangerous to get access to the factory and destroy machinery than it is to set a few cars on fire in a parking lot.

[-] Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

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

[-] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 13 points 3 weeks ago

Accidents happen.

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 weeks ago

Definitely wasn't the Italian Antifascists because none of the teslas where flipped upside down.

[-] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[-] Soapbox1858@lemm.ee 10 points 3 weeks ago

17 dang, Is that a high score?

[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago

The article says another location had 30. So AFAIK that would be the high score.

[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 5 points 3 weeks ago

The 100 mark is reachable

[-] Soapbox1858@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago
[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

Is there a leaderboard somewhere online?

[-] riskable@programming.dev 10 points 3 weeks ago

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!"

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 13 points 3 weeks ago

They are. Trump's DOJ is trying to charge people with terrorism and hate crimes for defacing a Tesla.

[-] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 weeks ago

Tch tch tch, those damn self combusting, self immolating Teslas.

Someone should probably just ban them all, astoundingly unsafe, especially the cybertrucks.

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 weeks ago

The rides of March.

[-] Bellingdog@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I bet the fella from Fiat played a mean fiddle while Tesla of North Rome burned.

[-] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago

Not those Teslas sure do have a self combustion problem...

[-] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago
[-] DrSleepless@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago
[-] Ilixtze@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

They just do that by themselves

[-] Zdvarko@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago
[-] Ilixtze@lemm.ee 8 points 3 weeks ago

It is the viking funeral feature

[-] PurpleSkull@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago

Typical Roman suppression against Illyrians again. Tsk Tsk.

[-] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Insurance scam.

[-] Monstrosity@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago
[-] ctkatz@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

we're having chili for dinner, but not that disgusting cincinnati style variety.

this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
536 points (100.0% liked)

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