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VANCOUVER — 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 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 the decision wasn’t easy, but was made “in light of the recent escalating events throughout North America.”
“Sometimes you’ve got to listen to your gut, and if we see elements that are going on in the public, what level of risk does that pose to our team?” he said. “My job is to make sure we provide the best and safest event possible.”
Nicholl said Tesla was provided “multiple opportunities to voluntarily withdraw,” and the company’s team was “obviously disappointed” about being removed from the auto show the day before it’s scheduled to begin.
He said consumer auto shows are important to every car manufacturer, and he said no other participants had been removed in the three years he’s been running the show.
The show at the Vancouver Convention Centre begins Wednesday and will end Sunday.
Nicholl said there’d been no specific threats about Tesla or the auto show, but said politics had nothing to do with the move.
“The political position of this has absolutely no bearing on the decision. This is purely from a safety right for our guests,” he said.
Tesla did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment about the auto show. The Vancouver Police Department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about any safety or security concerns about Tesla and the auto show.
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.”
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 Tesla.
“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.”
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.
The Vancouver International Auto Show said in a statement in February that it had record-setting attendance last year and had solidified itself as Western Canada’s best-attended consumer show and one of North America’s premier automotive exhibition events.
“Showgoers will find the latest technology-leading, environmentally focused EV’s, coupled with lifestyle features and commercial vendors,” Nicholl had said in the statement. “This is a celebration of the automotive culture in B.C.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2025.
Darryl Greer and Nono Shen, The Canadian Press
