New York
CNN
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Tesla’s display at this week’s Vancouver International Auto Show was removed by event organizers because of safety issues revolving around the Elon Musk-led company.
An auto show spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that Tesla was “removed” following “multiple opportunities to voluntarily withdraw” from the event, adding that the show’s “primary concern is the safety of attendees, exhibitors, and staff.”
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The auto show begins Wednesday and last year drew a record-breaking 130,000 visitors.
Tesla has recently been the target of protests in several cities across the US and Canada. On Tuesday, a person dressed in black shot and set fire to several Tesla vehicles at a repair facility in Las Vegas, police said, in what the FBI is investigating as a possible act of domestic terrorism.
Musk has also personally drawn the ire of some Canadians, writing last month on his social media platform, X, that Canada “is not a real country,” sparking a petition to remove his passport and citizenship that received more than 375,000 signatures. Although he was born in South Africa, he obtained a Canadian passport as a teenager through his mother, Maye Musk, who was born in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The electric automaker is also dealing with declining sales for the first time because of increased competition and backlash over Musk’s contentious role in the Trump administration as a main advisor to the president and the leader of the effort to drastically cut the federal government.
Tesla recently reported the first drop in annual sales in its history, and there are indications that sales of its used cars are also declining.
Prices on pre-owned Teslas are falling at more than double the rate of the average car, according to research by CarGurus. Prices for used cars overall have fallen 2.7% year over year, while used Teslas have declined 7.3%.
