Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
South Korean automaker Kia ran a full-page advertisement in Finland’s largest newspaper in March directly targeting Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, one week before the local debut of its EV4 fully electric model.
Several automakers have ramped up Tesla trade-in incentives since the beginning of the year, including U.S. electric vehicle makers Rivian and Lucid, as well as Polestar, which is backed by China’s Geely Holding Group.
The campaign came shortly after Kia’s Norwegian division launched a social media campaign that showed another EV model with a sticker reading, “I bought this after Elon went crazy.” The post was later on deleted.
Shared on Instagram in early March, the post quickly went viral and drew a reaction from Musk himself, who posted on X, “They really did that?”
The most recent campaign, which involved an ad published on the front page of the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on March 7, featured a full-width image of the EV4 with the phrase “Voi näitä Elon päiviä” — a Finnish pun that translates to “Oh, these Elon days.”
The campaign was part of Kia’s promotional push for the AUTO 25 & Mobility event in Helsinki, where the South Korean automaker gave the EV4 its world premiere between in mid-March.
Kia later deleted the Norwegian post. Christian Lagaard, head of communications for Kia Norway, said the ad was meant as humor and acknowledged that “humor resonates differently in different countries.” The automaker added that it had no intention of offending anyone.
Kia has previously run targeted incentive programs to lure Tesla owners, including a $1,500 bonus in the U.S. last year and a $9,000 discount on its flagship EV9 SUV. Musk responded to those initiatives in September, posting on X: “But here’s the rub, Tesla never has to bribe Kia drivers to buy a Tesla…”
On the last day of March, a fire at a Tesla dealership on the outskirts of Rome damaged 17 vehicles and destroyed another seven. No injuries were reported, and the facility was unoccupied at the time.
Tesla has faced a growing wave of politically motivated attacks across North America and Europe, with demonstrations and targeted incidents reported at service centers in the U.S., Canada, and several European countries. These actions have been linked to Elon Musk’s ties to the U.S. administration and his role at the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE.
