Electric vehicle manufacturing giant Tesla is still dealing with production chaos following an attack last week which has left the Berlin production base without power for six days.
The Gruenheide Gigafactory near Berlin was the target of a suspected arson attack on Tuesday, March 5, that caused the production site to lose power and disrupt the manufacturing of new vehicles.
Police in the German capital said the arson could have caused a nearby electricity pylon to catch fire, which forced production at the factory to be suspended and leaving founder and CEO Elon Musk with a serious issue.
The Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor has taken over the investigation into the arson attack that took place last week at the Gruenheide plant.
Elon Musk slammed those responsible for attacking the Tesla factory near Berlin
REUTERS
Reuters reported that the department could be looking into charges of terrorism for the perpetrators.
There are hopes that the Gigafactory will see power again from Monday, following speedy weekend work from E.dis, a division of German energy network firm E.ON.
Tesla had originally predicted that electricity at the plant would be out until March 15, with E.dis employees working in a three-shift pattern to ensure connection would be established as soon as possible.
It is believed that Tesla is unable to produce around 1,000 vehicles a day, meaning the company could be losing “hundreds of millions of euros in damages”.
Workers at the Tesla factory protested against the campaigners
REUTERS
Posting on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, an account for Tesla Manufacturing, using the screen name “@gigafactories”, said the safety of their employee was the top priority.
It added: “We are sincerely grateful for the great support from all parts of Germany and the world and condemn violence in any form.
“We will not allow criminal offences and acts of terrorism to deter us from our mission to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and will restart the factory as soon as possible and resume full production at the factory.”
The so-called Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group) claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to keep Tesla offline in a 2,500-word letter sent to the local news service in the area, the Tagesspiegel.
Numerous protests have taken place in recent weeks
REUTERS
The group, which has been described as “left-wing extremists” and “anarchists”, wrote: “Together we will bring Tesla to its knees. Switch off for Tesla. Love and strength to all Antif@s! We sabotaged Tesla today.
“No Tesla in the world should be safe from our flaming rage. Every Tesla that burns sabotages the imperial way of life and effectively destroys the ever-tightening network of seamless, smart surveillance of every expression of human life.”
Writing on X in the aftermath of the attack, Elon Musk, who owns the social media site, said: “These are either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they're puppets of those who don't have good environmental goals.
"Stopping production of electric vehicles, rather than fossil fuel vehicles, ist extrem dumm.”
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The damaged electricity pylon near the Tesla factory
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Tesla has been met with fierce backlash in recent weeks after environmental groups accused the brand of polluting local water sources with harmful chemicals, although this has been disputed by the Musk-led EV producer.