Environmental protesters target Ford EV at N.Y. auto show

It really should come as no surprise that climate activist group Extinction Rebellion staged a protest at the recent New York International Auto Show. With gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing behemoths like the 2025 Infiniti QX80 and the 2025 Genesis GV80 Magma creating big footprints on the Javits Center floor, there was no shortage of vehicles to enrage and engage the ER gang.

So which vehicle did they target with their signature oil pour? The all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning. Surely a case of mistaken identity, the protesters no doubt confusing the electric pickup truck with its gasoline-powered F-150 stablemate? Nope. The Lightning was indeed the rod for their scorn.

“No EVs on a dead planet,” the grumpy band of environmentalists chanted as an ER member poured a substance believed to be motor oil on the EV and the floor around it. He was subsequently arrested.

“We are not protesting car lovers, we are protesting car dependence,” said Extinction Rebellion activist

Mark Graham. “The vast majority of auto-based emissions, during both production and use, are caused not by people who want to drive, but by those who have no choice but to drive.”

Putting aside the unusual nuance of that statement, the point they were trying to make by soiling an all-electric vehicle with fossil fuel is that the transition from ICE vehicles to EVs simply replaces one polluting means of transportation with another.

For example, EVs still use steel, which accounts for 11 per cent of global CO2 emissions. Mining for minerals required for EV batteries continues to be controversial from environmental and social perspectives. And road infrastructure is still required for all-electric vehicles, something ER claims does irreparable harm to the environment.

“Electric vehicles don't solve the real problem with cars — wastefully large infrastructure, needlessly complex and resource-intensive construction, and energy inefficiency, even in the case of electric cars,” said ER spokesman Miles Grant. “Electric vehicles are a popular investment because they don't disrupt the status quo.”

March was a busy month for Extinction Rebellion in New York City, with a protest during an Easter vigil at St. Patrick's Cathedral that saw activists rise in the pews to sing Dona Nobis Pacem, which translates from Latin to “grant us peace.” And two weeks earlier, the merry band of protesters disrupted the Broadway play An Enemy of the People, saying they were not against the play, but rather the use of fossil fuels.

No word how the protesters travelled to or around Manhattan.