A suspicious fire that tore through a Tesla dealership in Rome early Monday morning has left behind a scorched mess of metal and plenty of questions. At least 17 fully electric vehicles were destroyed in the blaze, marking the latest in a string of troubling incidents involving Tesla facilities around the globe.

The incident arrives amid growing backlash against Elon Musk, raising suspicions that this wasn’t just some random electrical mishap. While the exact cause remains under investigation, authorities have not ruled out arson. Fortunately, no one was injured, as the dealership was closed at the time of the fire. Still, the loss is significant, not just in property, but in what it might signal.

More: Man Tries To Torch Tesla Superchargers But Ends Up Torching Himself

According to local media, emergency services were alerted around 4 a.m. on Monday, March 31. Police have since questioned the dealership’s owners and are combing through CCTV footage, Reuters reports.

The fire broke out at the Tesla store located at 48 Via Serracapriola in Rome. Drone footage shared by the YouTube channel Local Team shows the parking lot littered with charred vehicle shells. At least 16 Teslas appear to have suffered irreparable damage.

These cars were reportedly prepped and ready for delivery to customers. Furthermore, the shed covering them was also damaged by the intense heat, though the Tesla dealership’s main building seems to have escaped the worst of it.

A Brand Under Fire—Literally

The timing is hard to ignore. Just two days before the fire, the so-called “Tesla Takedown” movement organized protests outside more than 200 Tesla dealerships across Europe and North America. Most gatherings remained peaceful, but a handful of them escalated into vandalism—and now, possibly worse.

Earlier this month, suspicious fires destroyed multiple Tesla EVs across the USA, as well as in Italy, Germany, and France. In Ontario, Canada, more than 80 vehicles were vandalized at a single Tesla dealership—another flashpoint in what’s quickly becoming a global anti-Musk movement. If there’s no connection between these incidents, it would be one hell of a coincidence.

#Vigilidelfuoco di #Savona in azione stanotte per l'#incendio di 17 automobili nel deposito vetture del porto cittadino. Utilizzata dalle squadre schiuma antincendio per abbattere le fiamme#30marzo pic.twitter.com/KJgVbvL8vw

— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) March 30, 2025

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The $7,500 federal EV tax credit has given many Americans a financial nudge to go electric, but the program hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. While the credit can now be applied directly at the point of sale, some dealerships have been dragging their feet on the process, leaving buyers high and dry without the discount they were promised. But, good news: there’s a fix in the works.

Read: Dealers’ Paperwork Errors Are Costing Buyers Their EV Tax Credits With The IRS

It turns out that while the rebate is available at purchase, dealers have to be enrolled in the program and use a portal to submit their EV sales report within three days of the transaction for the credit to go through. Miss that deadline, and the rebate? Poof. Gone.

The IRS Steps In with a Lifeline

Fortunately, the IRS is stepping up to the plate. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the agency is essentially hitting the reset button on the 3-day reporting rule. Now, dealers can submit reports for any qualifying clean vehicle credit transaction from 2024, even if it happened earlier in the year.

According to NADA, the IRS updated the portal earlier this week, making it fully operational for dealers. The good news here isn’t just for car buyers, it’s a win for dealerships, too. Some dealers had been offering the tax credit upfront to customers at the point of sale, only to later realize they hadn’t secured the actual rebate yet.

NADA says it “advocated aggressively for the IRS to remedy these issues” and even went so far as to send a formal letter to both the U.S. Department of Treasury and the IRS, urging them to address the problem quickly and implement a timely solution.

With the Trump administration set to impose 25% tariffs on all cars made overseas starting April 2, the tax credit is perhaps more valuable now than at any other time for consumers. These new tariffs are expected to drive up the cost of both new and used cars, possibly adding thousands to the price tag. So, for many buyers, that $7,500 credit is about to get a lot more valuable.

Some Tesla owners disgusted at CEO Elon Musk’s DOGE work for the US government, are selling their EVs, and some non-Tesla drivers are vandalizing the automaker’s EVs and property to show their displeasure. Now New York lawmakers are planning their own attack on Musk by attempting to remove Tesla’s right to sell directly to customers in the state.

Democrat senators are pushing to rescind permits granted in 2014 that allow Tesla to sell directly to consumers. Like several other US states, New York normally forbids direct sales, requiring automakers to sell through dealers. Even other EV makers such as Lucid and Rivian, which sell directly in other states, are not allowed to in New York.

Related: Trump Supporter Pulls Taser At Tesla Protesters, But Grandma Isn’t Having It

State Sen. Pat Fahy is leading the charge to rip up Tesla’s right to operate at five locations, but the five permits wouldn’t disappear altogether. Instead, they could be offered to rival brands, though some lawmakers and dealer groups believe the permits should be axed because they give too much power to a small number of people.

A similar bill designed to end Tesla’s direct-sales freedoms has been introduced in Washington state, and a bill proposing sales limits be raised for direct-to-consumer outlets has stalled, Politico reports. And none of this is rooted in hatred for Tesla itself, but for the man at the head of the company.

Since President Trump moved back into the White House, Musk has focused his energy on the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose federal cost-cutting drive has left thousands of people unemployed. He has also caused outrage by attempting to win DOGE employees access to sensitive tax information of millions of Americans.

And restricting Tesla’s sales isn’t the only way lawmakers could hit Musk in the pocket. Fahy – an EV advocate – and other senators have written to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, asking him to sell off Tesla shares owned by the New York State pension fund.

Remember the good old days when radio head units were a one-size-fits-all affair, and dealers or aftermarket suppliers could quickly and easily upgrade your car’s stereo with a screwdriver and a bit of elbow grease? The gradual replacement of single and double-DIN head units for proprietary layouts, screens, and software was heralded as progress. But when car manufacturers decide they no longer want to include a feature, it leaves frustrated owners without an option.

That’s what happened when General Motors decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for its Ultium EV platform. Naturally, customers were a little miffed, but one dealer came to the rescue, offering to install an aftermarket solution that allows screen mirroring.

Read: Why GM’s Software Boss Thinks Ultifi Can Beat Apple CarPlay

But now GM has stopped it, according to The Drive. The dealer claims GM instructed them to stop offering the kit. Additionally, the manufacturer of the kit pulled the product from its website, claiming it was no longer viable to keep selling it.

Mirroring Dreams

Back in 2023, General Motors made the controversial decision to drop Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support from its new-generation EVs. Instead, it would offer its own smartphone-compatible software solution: Ultifi.

At the time, GM defended the move, saying that it helped the company offer a more “deeply integrated experience that you can create with the vehicle” by building a system from the ground up. The future of autonomy, as well as other features such as battery preconditioning, were all listed as reasons why GM’s own tech was the way forward.

As is often the case, the aftermarket seemingly came to the rescue when White Automotive and Media Services (WAMS) developed a kit that allowed OEM-like integration of the two most popular screen mirroring apps.

The only catch was that the WAMS kit wasn’t something a hobbyist or casual user could install. Instead, it required a specialist touch. A single dealership, LaFontaine Chevrolet in Plymouth, Michigan, was tapped to offer the professional install.

The Unsurprising Block

As you can easily guess, GM wasn’t very pleased with the situation. The company launched an investigation into the kit, and a company spokesperson said: “Aftermarket services that introduce features not originally designed, thoroughly tested, and approved by GM may cause unintended issues for customers. These issues could affect critical safety features and may also void portions of the vehicle’s warranty.”

It all sounds like this was a specialist piece of kit that, at best, modified and, at worst, wholly bypassed GM’s proprietary software. And with the amount of data that cars can collect nowadays, there’s also a question mark over just how protected one’s personal info is after the installation of a third-party device. As we’ve reported many times, though, that’s also a big issue for automakers themselves and how they use owners’ data, so it’s kinda the kettle calling the pot black.

Are We At The Mercy Of Automakers?

With the WAMS system only offered by one dealership and the complexity of the kit precluding DIY installers, it can be assumed that with the only distribution channel shut down, WAMS couldn’t see a future in the product.

However, it’s another stark reminder that as cars become more tech-laden, we’re increasingly at the behest of the manufacturers who can decide to end support for key selling points at any time. Not to mention putting already installed features behind a paywall despite the hardware already being there. Sure, they might call them subscriptions, but milking their customers trying to cash in for a software update by any other name still smells fishy.

Tesla was accused by the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) of cheating legitimate car dealers and buyers in Canada out of iZEV subsidies earlier this month. Critics have now grown even more suspicious after footage emerged of hundreds of new Tesla EVs left in disused parking lots.

Canadian media discovered huge fleets of brand new Model 3s and Model Ys languishing in the lot of an old strip mall in Toronto, conveniently located across the street from a Tesla dealership. Hundreds of miles away in Laval, Quebec, reporters founds scores more Teslas jammed into parking bays in another lot.

Related: Tesla Accused Of Gaming Canada’s EV Rebate Program After 4 Stores Sold 2 Cars Per Minute Wiping Out $43M In Grants

A staggering 8,600 cars were registered in just three days at four Tesla retail outlets in Canada, which breaks down as one car every minute, 24 hours a day for three straight days, even when the stores were closed. That kind of activity is highly unusual, but what really raised eyebrows was the timing of the sales flurry.

The sales came during a period when demand for Teslas in Canada had tanked, in part due to CEO Elon Musk’s association with President Trump, who has threatened to impose significant import tariffs and repeatedly suggested that Canada could become the USA’s 51st state. But the sales also occurred right before the country paused its iZEV electric vehicle subsidy program, leading some to suggests Tesla had gamed the system.

Tesla filed for C$43.1 million (US$30M) in rebates, which represented more than half of the remaining C$71.8 million (US$50M) allocated for EV rebates, and has left many Canadian car dealers out of pocket. They had fronted the discount themselves for each car they’d sold on the understanding that they’d be able to recoup the money from the Canadian government, but that might not now happen.

One dealer CTV News spoke to said he was C$400k ($279k) down because Tesla’s sales rush meant he hadn’t had chance to claim before the program was shut down.

More: Over 80 Tesla Cars Vandalized At Canadian Dealership In Possibly The Largest Attack Yet

Tesla better hope the vandals behind recent attacks on its cars and showrooms don’t watch the news, because hundreds of Model 3s and Model Ys parked up together sounds like a dream come true for protestors. We’ve asked Tesla—who famously disbanded its press team in the US—about the lots full of cars, but so far, we haven’t received a response.

Lead image Google Maps

Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids promise savings on energy costs—and sometimes at the dealership, too. But while federal incentives have helped push adoption, they’re not guaranteed to last forever and might disappear soon. In 2024, many buyers factored these rebates into their purchase decisions, only to find out later that dealership paperwork mistakes left them empty-handed.

It seems as if every year, taxes regarding EVs change to one degree or another. That was certainly the case in 2024 too. Perhaps the biggest change is that buyers could get access to their rebate at the time of purchase. For this to work though, dealers had to enroll in the program and then use a specific portal to report when buyers took advantage of their rebate at the time of sale.

Read: California To Reinstate EV Rebates If Trump Scraps Tax Credit, Just Not For Tesla

According to NPR, however, thousands of dealers failed to meet those guidelines. Those who didn’t enroll still needed to provide buyers with paperwork to obtain their tax rebate at the end of the year. In many cases, the form provided was out of date and, therefore, meaningless.

Kristina Meier, who bought a PHEV minivan last September, says that her dealer provided forms that worked in 2023 but not in 2024. Without the dealer properly submitting the paperwork on time, customers aren’t eligible for the tax rebate, even if they did everything else by the book.

A Slim Chance for a Fix

The deadline for a dealer to submit paperwork to the IRS is just three days after the sale, which means it’s currently impossible for Meier and others like her to claim their tax rebate. However, there’s still a glimmer of hope: the IRS has allowed retroactive submissions in the past.

If the agency does so again, it would allow buyers like Meier to get their tax rebate despite the dealer screwing up on the front end. Whether or not that will happen, however, remains unknown. For now, it’s unclear how many buyers are affected by this issue, but the more people speak up, the better chance there is the IRS might to do something about it.