Six protesters turned out for a demonstration against the Tesla brand in Dublin on Saturday.
The protest at the Tesla showroom in Sandyford was called to show resistance to the policies of Tesla owner and US presidential adviser Elon Musk.
The call followed a wave of protests – some violent – targeting Tesla facilities in the US and internationally in recent weeks.
But there was little sign of any disturbance in Sandyford on Saturday as two uniformed Garda officers sitting in patrol car down the street from the Tesla showroom, and a further two officers in an unmarked car at the other end of the street, almost outnumbered the protesters.
Marine Le Pen banned from standing for office for five years and sentenced to four-year jail term
Blocking Irish listeners from BBC Sounds app a ‘slap in the face’
Jack Crowley agrees new Munster contract after turning down offer from Leicester Tigers
The 80/20 rule of dating is nonsense. So why do so many people believe it?
As a “decentralised” movement there were no organisers, no banners, no speeches and nobody to welcome those few who turned up.
One man who said he lived locally said he observed cars being moved from the front of the Tesla premises earlier on Saturday. The man said he was there to show opposition to the policies of Mr Musk and US president Donald Trump.
Celeste Marin, a US citizen living in Ireland, said she objected to Mr Musk.
“He is an unelected and improperly appointed private businessman using his wealth, gained in part through Tesla, to illegally destroy US government institutions and to illegally take away taxpayer resources from people that the US government has allocated them to, and to further enrich himself.”
She said Mr Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was “a threat to the security of all Americans because Musk illegally gave unqualified people access to our personal data, including through social security and the IRS [Internal Revenue Service tax authority]”.
Ms Marin also said: “I would like to see him bankrupt because money is the only thing he cares about.”
A similar protest outside the Tesla showrooms at Boucher Road, Belfast, was peaceful, a PSNI spokesman said.
Overseas, thousands of people protested against Mr Musk and his efforts with Mr Trump to dismantle the US federal government, with rallies held in front of nearly every Tesla showroom in the US and many around the world – a concerted effort to go after the billionaire’s deep pockets as the CEO of the electric vehicle maker.
On Saturday, with more than 200 events planned worldwide, protests began at midday in front of Tesla showrooms in Australia and New Zealand and then rippled across Europe in countries including Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK.
Each Tesla Takedown rally was locally organised with original themes. In Ireland, it was “Smash the Fash”, and Switzerland had “Down with Doge”.
Photos posted to Bluesky by Tesla Takedown showed demonstrators in San Jose, California, close to where Tesla was previously headquartered, and Austin, Texas, where its headquarters are now.
“It’s too overwhelming to do nothing,” said Louise Cobbett-Witten, who has family in the US and was protesting at a Tesla dealership in west London. “There is real solace in coming together like this. Everyone has to do something. We haven’t got a big strategy besides just standing on the side of the street, holding signs and screaming.”
In New York City, several hundred anti-Tesla protesters gathered outside the EV company’s Manhattan showroom on Saturday.
Sophie Shepherd (23), an organiser with Planet Over Profit, said the rally was not about protesting against electric cars. “We’re here to protest Musk, who has essentially held a Tesla car show on the White House lawn,” she said. “We want to disrupt his business as much as possible, so that includes all Teslas, and not just the Cybertruck.”
Marty (82) said he was attending the New York City rally “because I’m worried about my country”. In the 1960s, he protested against the Vietnam War. “Now, it’s the overthrow of our country by oligarchs,” he said. The rally, he said, was a message to “this guy Elon who is buying our government”.
On Friday, the New York police department said its officers were searching for two suspects who allegedly carved the word “Nazis” and a swastika on the doors of a Tesla Cybertruck in Brooklyn, part of a rise in attacks on Tesla vehicles and facilities across the US since Trump took office.
In Berkeley, California, the Tesla showroom has shut down every Saturday for the last month because of the weekly protests, according to salespeople from neighbouring retailers. Only security guards have stayed on to guard the building. It’s been the scene of lively demonstrations that have included a mariachi band and a 10-foot cardboard Cybertruck for people to spray-paint. Earlier this month, the showroom’s front door was splattered with red paint. The showroom manager declined to comment.
In Washington, DC, organisers planned a rally in front of a new Tesla showroom in Georgetown, making the theme “Tesla Takedown Dance Party”.
“The hypocrisy is so deep,” said Manissa Maharawal, an assistant professor at American University who has studied anti-tech protests and says Tesla has received billions of dollars in US government funding. “It’s this company that’s been subsidised in a lot of ways by the government, but now the CEO is trying to dismantle the government because he thinks he knows better than everyone, because he comes from the tech industry.”
In the US, protests happened in nearly every state, across the northeast, south and midwest through to the west coast. States with the most planned rallies included Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Texas, Washington and California, totalling more than 100. Several protests also took place throughout Canada.
In London, dozens of demonstrators gathered at a Tesla showroom along the three-lane A40 to the west of the city.
“Musk is hugely abhorrent. He is funding the far right, and meaning that any Republicans who speak out end up not being funded in their next election,” gay rights campaigner Nigel Warner said in London.
Organisers have also been careful to distance themselves from the violent vandalism that has been carried out against Tesla showrooms. Dozens of Tesla facilities have been attacked in the middle of the night with Molotov cocktails, gunshots or graffiti saying things like “Tesla is fascist”.
Tesla Takedown organisers condemn the vandalism. “We are a non-violent grassroots protest movement,” the group says. “We oppose violence and destruction of property. Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism.”
Additional reporting by The Guardian
