The police in Seattle are investigating a fire that damaged four Tesla Cybertrucks parked in an electric vehicle storage lot late Sunday night, the authorities said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the fire or whether it was set deliberately, but it came after a series of attacks against Tesla since its billionaire chief executive, Elon Musk, became an adviser to President Trump.
An emergency call reporting the fire was made around 11:13 p.m. on Sunday night in the industrial Seattle neighborhood of SoDo, said David Cuerpo, a spokesman for the Seattle Fire Department. Fire crews moved the four electric vehicles to keep anything else from catching fire, Mr. Cuerpo said, and there were no injuries or other damage.
The Seattle Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the fire.
In an email on Monday, Mr. Cuerpo declined to confirm what type of electric vehicles were involved because the investigation is continuing. But The Associated Press, citing Seattle fire officials, reported that the four vehicles that had been damaged were Tesla Cybertrucks.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The fire happened after weeks of backlash against Tesla from those who oppose Mr. Musk and his recent political actions, including sweeping cuts to federal jobs.
Last week, several Tesla charging stations were intentionally set on fire outside Boston, and days later, shots were fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon. Over the weekend, protesters were arrested at a nonviolent demonstration at a Tesla dealership in Lower Manhattan.
Federal prosecutors have also stepped in, charging a person with malicious destruction of property last week and accusing them of spray-painting “Nazi” onto the side of a Tesla dealership and planting a Molotov cocktail near a vehicle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado.
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