Burned Teslas are shown at a Tesla Collision Center after an individual used incendiary devices to set several vehicles on fire on March 18, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images
The FBI has launched a new task force to investigate attacks targeting Tesla, the electric vehicle company headed by Trump administration DOGE chief Elon Musk.
The announcement of the task force on Monday came hours after a bomb squad found multiple incendiary devices at a Tesla showroom in Austin, Texas, the same city where the company has its headquarters.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks and vandalism on Tesla properties related to CEO Musk’s DOGE team, which is engaged in a wide-ranging effort to sharply cut federal government spending and staffing.
“The FBI has been investigating the increase in violent activity toward Tesla, and over the last few days, we have taken additional steps to crack down and coordinate our response,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X, the social media site owned by Musk.
“This is domestic terrorism,” Patel wrote in that tweet. “Those responsible will be pursued, caught, and brought to justice.”
The New York Post first reported news of the task force.
“Can confirm,” FBI spokesman Ben Williamson tweeted in response to The Post’s report.
“The FBI has launched a Task Force in conjunction with ATF to coordinate investigative activity and crack down on violent Tesla attacks. More to come.”
Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s vice president of Environment, Health and Safety and Security, did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked what the company is doing to protect its facilities.
Musk at a Tesla event on Thursday referenced the spate of vandalism on Tesla vehicles and sites.
“If you read the news, it feels like, you know, Armageddon,” Musk told employees.
The CEO said that anyone burning Tesla vehicles was “psycho” and should “stop being psycho!”
A Tesla employee told CNBC that there had not been any company-wide communications about protests or criminal acts targeting the company since Thursday’s all-hands event.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this article
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