Vancouver International Auto Show removes Tesla, citing safety concerns at event

Tesla has been removed from participating in this week’s Vancouver International Auto Show over safety concerns, the event’s executive director says.

Eric Nicholl said in a statement Tuesday that the show asked the electric carmaker to withdraw because of a “primary concern” for the safety of workers, attendees and exhibitors.

Nicholl said Tesla was provided “multiple opportunities to voluntarily withdraw.”

“This decision will ensure all attendees can be solely focused on enjoying the many positive elements of the event,” the statement said.

Speaking to CityNews Tuesday, Nicholl says political position has “absolutely no bearing on the decision.”

“With 20 years of experience running major consumers events, making the decision at this point in time ensures that the safety of our guests and our attendees is paramount,” he said.

The automaker’s removal comes after so-called “Tesla Takedown” protests on the weekend, including in Ottawa and Metro Vancouver, that denounced Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his role advising U.S. President Donald Trump.

About two dozen protesters had gathered outside a Tesla dealership in Surrey, B.C., on Sunday, the day after a similar protest in Vancouver, holding signs with messages including “elbows up,” “Elon be-gone” and “democracy dies in apathy.”

Citing protests, Nicholl says he’s seen “escalating events” throughout North America.

“We’re going to go back to making sure that we provide the safest event possible,” he said.

Pat McCutcheon, who attended the Surrey protest, said in an interview on Tuesday that the organizers of the auto show did the right thing by removing Telsa.

“Given the temperature of the situation, there are people, unfortunately, out there that are very annoyed with the Tesla situation and the Elon Musk situation,” said McCutcheon.

He said he had heard nothing about any protests at the auto show, but said there was a “fair amount of emotion” surrounding Tesla.

“The last thing you want (for) one of your organizations is for there to be some vandalism or some physical confrontation. So, I think they made the right decision.”

McCutcheon said he is organizing a protest outside a Langley, B.C., Tesla dealership this weekend.

He said the Surrey protest was mostly peaceful, but there were one or two verbal confrontations with people driving by and yelling.

He said the purpose of the rallies was to discourage consumers from the Tesla brand.

“Elon Musk is using his extraordinary wealth to basically corrupt democracy and do what he wants to do and citizens, both in the United States, Canada, globally, need to push back on this,” said McCutcheon.

“We can’t sit on the couch. We have to rise up and we have to meet this challenge.”

Before the announcement, Nicholl told NewsRadio that he expects the auto show to draw in as many as 125,000 visitors over the course of five days.

He said threats from the U.S. have complicated the automotive business.

“Every one of these final production cars is going to go across the border seven or eight times until it’s finally complete. So, if we’re adding 25 per cent [tariffs] at each one of those touch points, it it is going to have an increase on the overall production costs as well as the final cost to the consumer.”

The Vancouver International Auto Show opens at noon Wednesday and runs through Sunday at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Last week, BC Hydro banned Tesla products from its electric vehicle rebate program as part of the provincial government’s move to give preference to Canadian goods and exclude U.S. ones from rebates if practical amid the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war.

—With files from John Ackermann and Kier Junos.