The Hamilton police in Ontario announced that over 80 Tesla vehicles were damaged in a vandalism attack at a Tesla service center.
It’s the latest example of a series of vandalism attacks against Tesla over the last few weeks.
On Wednesday March 19, Hamilton Police reported being called were called to the Tesla service center located at 999 Upper Wentworth Street over a report of “damage to some of the vehicles in the store’s inventory.”
Hamilton Police reported:
Officers responded and discovered upwards of 80 Tesla vehicles which were parked outdoors had been damaged, including but not limited to deep scratches and punctured tires.
Here are some images of the damage via CTV:
Police said they are currently “reviewing CCTV camera footage and are asking the public for their assistance in solving this crime.”
There have been many instances of Tesla vehicles being vandalized at Tesla locations over the last few weeks, but 80 vehicles at once is a first.
Tesla is currently under probe in Canada for having pre-filed thousands of rebates worth $43 million with the government before they paused their EV incentive program in January. There are doubts about Tesla having delivered any significant amount of the vehicles it would have needed to deliver in order to justify filing for those rebates.
In addition to this current situation, Tesla is facing backlashes in Canada as both an American brand and because it is controlled by Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s biggest political donor.
Trump has been waging a trade war against Canada without hiding the fact that his goal is to weaken the country economically in order to force it to be annexed by the US.
This is widely unpopular in Canada.
Electrek’s Take
Again, as we have been for weeks, if you feel justified in going after Tesla for being Elon Musk’s personal piggy bank to finance the rise of fascism, I can sympathize with you. Still, vandalism or any form of violence is not the way to do it.
Protests and boycotts are much more efficient, and they happen to still be legal.
I also like to point out that this doesn’t even hurt Tesla that much. Tesla is having a very hard time selling cars in Canada, right, it’s not only because of eroding public perception because of Musk or as an American brand amid Trump’s trade war.
Canada’s recently paused EV incentive program has slowed down all EV sales, particularly Tesla’s.
Tesla was probably going to be stuck with most of these vehicles in inventory at the end of the quarter anyway.
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