A month of anti-Tesla dissent escalated this week with two reports of Teslas catching fire in Las Vegas and Kansas City.
The first incident happened early Tuesday morning at a Tesla collision center in Las Vegas, where police say a suspect in all-black gear hit several vehicles with Molotov cocktails and three bullets and painted the word “resist” on the doors of the facility, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal.
During a press conference, Deputy Fire Chief Jennifer Wyatt said the fire department was able to extinguish two Tesla vehicles before the batteries ignited. FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans also spoke at the press conference, saying the incident was initially categorized as arson and is now being investigated by the FBI’s joint terrorism task force. “I encourage anyone that’s considering something like this to seriously reconsider,” Evans said.
In posts on X following the incident, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the incidents “terrorism” and said the company “just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks.”
We reached out for an update from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and were told there’s nothing to report since the press conference. The suspect remains at large.
In Kansas City, Police Captain Jacob Becchina said in a statement that an officer first observed smoke coming from a Cybertruck parked in a Tesla parking lot. “The officer used his fire extinguisher, however KCFD was still needed as he could not put the fire out,” Becchina said. “The fire spread to a second Cybertruck parked next to the original burning one. The circumstances are under investigation but preliminarily the fire is being investigated for the potential of being an Arson.”
