04:27 AM EST, 01/03/2025 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with response from Turo in the last two paragraphs.)

Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk on Wednesday defended his company's car designs following an apparent New Year's attack in Las Vegas using an explosives-filled Cybertruck.

"The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack," Musk said on his social media platform X in one of several postings on the topic. "Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken."

Immediately after the explosion, Musk said Tesla's entire senior management team was investigating the matter. "We've never seen anything like this," he wrote.

He later described the explosion as an apparent act of terrorism "caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself."

He also noted that both the Cybertruck and the Ford F-150 used in the deadly New Year's Eve attack in New Orleans were rented using the peer-to-peer car sharing app, Turo. "Perhaps they are linked in some way," he wrote.

Tesla did not immediately reply to MT Newswires requests for comment.

Turo said it was "outraged by the misuse of our marketplace" by the alleged attackers and maintained that it screens every renter.

"These individuals in question had valid driver's licenses, clean background checks, and were honorably discharged from the US military," said a Turo spokesperson. "They could have boarded any plane, checked into a hotel, or rented a car or truck from a traditional vehicle rental chain. We do not believe these two individuals would have been flagged by anyone - including Big Rental or law enforcement."