Tesla was forced this Tuesday to evacuate the production unit in Berlin, Germany, and to interrupt production after the factory ran out of electricity following an alleged act of sabotage carried out by environmental activists.
The interruption of electricity supply to the factory occurred following a fire in a high-voltage electricity pole, located near Tesla’s production unit, which led to a power cut affecting some neighborhoods in Berlin.
#GigaBerlinBrandenburg
— Gigafactory Berlin News (@Gf4Tesla) March 5, 2024
Tesla Gigafactory in has been without power for hours, production is at a standstill. The reason is said to be an arson attack on an electricity pylon.
Presumably this is an attack by the " climate activists "
The police have not yet commented on these… pic.twitter.com/VedH6EewfK
The fire in the high-voltage pole has already been claimed by the German group “Vulkan Gruppe” who has taken responsibility for the sabotage of the factory of the American electric vehicle brand.
“With this sabotage, we set the goal of achieving a total blackout of the gigafactory”, the “Vulkan Gruppe” states in a press release published on the Indymedia platform.
However, the director of the Tesla factory in Germany has already stated that the sabotage action will cost the electric car manufacturer hundreds of millions of euros.
“There will be several days of interruption, we are not expecting this to happen during this week. We still don’t know if it will be at the beginning of next week. We’ll see”, said André Thierig in a press conference
Thierig noted that, this time, the factory, which started operating in 2021, had not received threats, but recalled that it had already been the target of a presumed arson attack and that there had also been an attack on a nearby railway line. “We are concerned about the safety of our employees”, he acknowledged.
On the other hand, Elon Musk, the strongman of Tesla, accused the authors of the “criminal fire” on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
“Either they are the stupidest eco-terrorists on the planet or they are puppets of those with bad environmental goals. Stopping the production of electric vehicles instead of vehicles powered by fossil fuels is extremely stupid”, he stated
It is worth noting that the brand and Elon Musk have been facing strong opposition in recent weeks due to the intention to expand the factory in Grünheide, a suburb of Berlin.
