Italian police increase security at Tesla dealerships after 17 cars destroyed in Rome fire

Italy’s interior ministry has written to police forces across the country to increase security at Tesla dealerships after 17 of the electric cars made by Elon Musk’s company were destroyed in a fire in Rome.

Italy’s state police anti-terrorism unit, Digos, is investigating whether the fire at the Tesla dealership in Torre Angela, a suburb in the east of the capital, was started by anarchists.

Firefighters worked for hours to put out the blaze in the early hours of Monday. Drone images showed a row of the burnt-out remains of the vehicles in a parking area of the dealership. Using his social media platform, X, Musk referred to it as “terrorism”.

There are 13 Tesla dealerships in Italy, all managed by the parent company, the majority of them in Rome, but also in other cities including Florence and Milan.

An interior ministry source said the circular was aimed at “raising awareness” of possible anti-Tesla protesters amid a global wave of vandalism in response to Musk’s political activities in the US. If needed, surveillance of dealerships would be increased, it said.

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president in January, Musk has been slashing the federal workforce as chief of the administration’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, prompting the emergence of “Tesla Takedown”, a boycott movement that started in the US before spreading to Europe.

Although most protests have so far been peaceful, Tesla dealerships and cars have increasingly been targets of vandalism. Seven vehicles were set alight at a dealership in Ottersberg, Germany, on Saturday, and two Tesla stores in Sweden, one in the capital, Stockholm, and the other in the costal city of Malmö, were vandalised with orange paint on Monday.

Musk has nurtured close relations with European far-right party leaders including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who in an interview in early January described him as “a brilliant man”.

Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League, a member of Meloni’s ruling coalition, expressed solidarity with Musk after the Rome incident.

“Too much unjustified hatred against the Tesla car company,” Salvini wrote on X. “The season of hate and conflict must come to an end as soon as possible. My solidarity goes out to Elon Musk and to all the workers who have been threatened and attacked.”