Kia's Instagram post with the text "I bought this before Elon went crazy" on the back of an EV3 has now disappeared from the platform.
Kia in Norway is now jumping on the wave of criticism that has risen against Tesla because Elon Musk is the brand's director.
In an Instagram post from February 11th of this year, the South Korean car brand mocked all Tesla owners with a sticker that read "I bought this before Elon went crazy" on a new Kia EV3.
This is what Elbil.no writes.
But posts are no longer found on the Norwegian Kia importer's Instagram profile, which jumps from a post on January 7th to a post on February 13th.
According to Elbil.no, the importer also included the image as a full-page advertisement in the newspaper Morgenbladet.
Instagram taunts have suddenly disappeared
This isn't the first time Kia has tried to take advantage of the situation. Back in the fall of 2024, the brand offered all American Tesla owners a $1,000 discount on a new EV6 or a $1,500 discount on the even larger EV9.
The discount, however, required drivers to prove they were Tesla owners. Or that they were leasing a Tesla. The Norwegian importer's attempt to mock Tesla owners has fallen on hard ground, however.
On a Reddit thread directly related to the now-deleted Instagram post, several users are turning Kia's mockery of Tesla owners against the car brand itself.
– So what Kia is really saying is that they are, at most, drivers' second choice? That's a pretty strange way to put it. But I applaud anyone who exposes Musk's madness.
– Bold marketing like this, stepping on a competitor who is down, writes another.
Some go so far as to suggest that Subaru in Norway should intervene by releasing a new sticker with the text; "I bought this after my Kia was stolen".
Kia also has a problem with theft in general. When the so-called Kia Challenge went viral as a TikTok trend back in 2023, several Kia models were stolen using a very simple trick. Read more about it here .
However, the Kia importer in Denmark denies to Boosted that the same thing can happen in Denmark. Allegedly because the cars in Denmark are not built in the same way.
Kia, on the other hand, is not the only one trying to capture Tesla customers amid the American brand's downturn. Polestar is also doing the same.
The brand, like Kia, offers big discounts to Tesla customers. In fact, the Swedish-Chinese brand advertises that it wants customers 'who hate Elon Musk'.
