Tesla’s manufacturing unit exterior Berlin, Germany will seemingly be shut down for days and price the automaker more than $100 million, after a suspected arson attack on the native energy grid.
The fireplace didn’t unfold to Tesla’s manufacturing unit and no person was harmed, although staff have been evacuated. Hundreds of residents within the space additionally briefly misplaced energy because of this.
A purported activist group calling itself the “Volcano Group” took credit score for the fireplace in a letter posted on-line Tuesday. Authorities haven’t confirmed their involvement, in line with Reuters. The identical group took credit score for a similar fire close to the positioning in 2021.
The group mentioned it sabotaged Tesla as a result of the corporate “eats up earth, resources, people, labor and spits out 6,000 SUVs, killer machines and monster trucks per week. Our gift for March 8th is to shut down Tesla.” As a result of the entire destruction of the Gigafactory and with it the sawing off of “technofascists” like Elon Musk are a step on the trail to liberation from patriarchy.”
CEO Elon Musk wrote (in German) in a post on his social media platform, X, that the arsonists have been “extremely dumb.”
The manufacturing unit — Tesla’s just one in Europe — has had a contentious first few years. Earlier than it opened in 2021, development lagged as locals haggled with Tesla over environmental issues. Final month, Tesla’s plan to broaden the manufacturing unit was additionally voted down by the general public. But it surely’s essential to Tesla’s operations on the continent, because it now makes around 6,000 electric vehicles per week.
