Photo: The Tyre Extinguishers on Twitter / autoevolution edit
The "Tire Extinguishers" (or "Tyre Extinguishers," if you're British) say they are a leaderless movement that has established removing SUVs and other types of large vehicles from urban areas as its core purpose. Their strategy is simple – become a nuisance so persistent that people will want to switch to coupes, sedans, wagons, or hatchbacks. It remains to be seen if they'll succeed, but the group has just finished its largest action. It all happened in Bavaria, Germany.
The Tire Extinguishers do not like crossovers, SUVs, and pickup trucks. They consider these types of vehicles dangerous, useless, and completely unnecessary. Their main argument against high-riding automobiles is that they pollute too much and take up too much space.
"Immobilizing SUVs is a small and necessary act of resistance in the face of environmental catastrophe," explained an anonymous representative.
However, they are also targeting all-electric or hybrid units. That tells us their main issue is with the size of these autos and not what's hiding under their hoods or on their floors.
The activists decided to discourage people from buying such vehicles by deflating their tires. There have been some isolated cases where the rubber rings were slashed, but most of those who joined stuck to the master plan.
The Tire Extinguishers are present in many countries. Most recently, the movement spread to Australia. There was an attempt to bring it to the US, but not many people showed willingness to touch other's property.
The movement gained traction last year when they deflated the tires of 60 SUVs in one night, in Canada. Later they reached a record of 180 high-riding "disarmed" vehicles in the UK.
However, now that number has grown considerably. After three nights of continuous efforts, 300 German car owners discovered that their vehicles had at least one tire deflated. The Tire Extinguishers confirmed that this was a retaliatory move made to show solidarity with an organization fighting against fossil fuels.
"Letze Generation" was inspired by the UK's "Just Stop Oil" and started protesting various events. The activists glue themselves to various surfaces to disrupt thousands of people's daily schedules. They're still a nuisance but are taking things to the next level. Sometimes, they might even destroy private property.
Photo: The Tyre Extinguishers on Twitter
On some occasions, they succeeded, and Police intervention was required. At one point, they even tried to stop Formula E – a FIA-sanctioned motorsport that uses only battery-electric cars to race.
The German Police investigated and found that the protestors were trying to form "a criminal organization." Based on that accusation, law enforcement started blocking the "Letze Generation" website, confiscating donation accounts, and making home searches to find more evidence. They blamed the Police for escalating the situation and claimed that Bavaria, BMW's home state, was trying to intimidate people and instill fear.
Deflating tires isn't going to deal too much damage to SUV or pickup truck owners. They will just reinflate them and, if needed, replace the damaged rubber rings. Large vehicles can weigh quite a lot. If they are equipped with larger rims, the tires might have to be replaced because the sidewall can be damaged.
The problematic aspect of this movement is that people may not be too keen on siding with the activists when they do not differentiate between less polluting hybrids or green-ish EVs. Even cheap crossovers like the Dacia Duster were included on their list.
The Tire Extinguishers support the actions of Germany's version of "Just Stop Oil" and promise to continue deflating SUV and pickup truck tires for as long as possible. We'll see if it eventually spreads to the US, too.
Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one. Full profile
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