Romania has a lot of wilderness, and most of it is still full of wildlife, some of which can attack you. Hunting bans and stricter protection have made the country’s population of wolves go up in recent years, and recently one wolf was spotted chasing a lone cyclist riding on a mountain pass near the resort of Poiana Brașov in the Carpathian mountains. Luckily for him, a couple in a Tesla Model 3 Highland were right behind him on the road and managed to ward off the animal.
This happened a few days ago, and it’s one of several recent sightings of wolves and bears coming into contact with humans (usually tourists) who come to the area year-round. There have not been any wild animal attacks reported in recent years, but with the frequency of sightings increasing and the animals seemingly getting braver, a tragedy can’t be excluded.
In this instance, the driver of the Model 3 did the right thing by sticking close to the cyclist and honking the car’s horn to keep the wolf away. It can be seen running after the cyclist who was descending at the time and was thus able to maintain a reasonably high speed, and even when the car gets in between, the animal goes around and continues the chase.
At one point, it seems like it’s gaining ground on the cyclist, but as the car also draws nearer, constantly honking, the wolf is eventually driven into the woods and disappears. We don’t know what happened next, but the people in the car were talking about offering the scared cyclist a ride to safety, although they probably wouldn’t have had a hard time getting the bicycle to fit in the car since the Model 3 is a sedan with a relatively small trunk opening.
The fact that a revised Model 3 happened to be on a relatively remote mountain road in Romania is not surprising—these cars are very common. Tesla has been doing quite well in the country, and 2023 was its best year with around 3,000 new cars sold, a third of which are the Model 3s, which starts at €42,990, but you can get nearly €6,000 off thanks to a government incentive program, making for a very attractive buy. These incentives amounted to over €10,000 in 2023 but were cut in half for 2024 following a similar trend across Europe, but Romania is among the 31 countries where EVs exceed 5% of new car sales.
