News 05/03/2024
The Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin was evacuated after a power outage, with the far-left "Volcano Group" claiming responsibility for the sabotage. Thousands of homes lost power during the incident.
The Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin was evacuated on Tuesday after a major power outage.
The left-wing extremist "Volcano Group" said it had carried out the assault on the power grid supplying the carmaker.
What we know so far
"We sabotaged Tesla today," a letter from the Volcano Group said, specifying an "attack on the electricity supply."
Police had earlier said they were investigating an initial suspicion of arson after an electricity pylon caught fire.
The state of Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) spoke of a "perfidious attack" on the electricity infrastructure. Unknown people had set fire to the high-voltage pylon between Steinfurt and Hartmannsdorf early on Tuesday morning, the ministry said.
Environmental activists protesting against the expansion of the factory last week said they planned to occupy the nearby forest for a week. The facility is the only factory run by billionaire Elon Musk's electric vehicle company in Europe.
Operator Stromnetz Berlin said there were also outages in the Berlin districts of Müggelheim, Rahnsdorf, and parts of Neukölln. Some 2,000 households are affected.
Quick return of power not expected
Tesla said all measures had been taken to secure the production facilities but that, after consultation with the electricity provider EDIS, the company did not expect production to restart quickly.
The fire brigade was called at around 5:15 a.m. (0415 GMT/UTC) and began extinguishing the fire. A police helicopter was deployed after the alarm was raised.
A police spokesperson earlier said they could not comment on a report in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that the fire had been started by activists.
The spokesperson added that bomb disposal units were called in after emergency services found a sign saying "ordnance buried here." Firefighters were said to be extinguishing the blaze in a field.
Police had initially said they were "investigating in all directions" about the possible cause.
What are Tesla's plans for the site?
The automaker aims to expand its plant, which has a capacity of around 500,000 cars a year. The plan hit a roadblock when local residents voted against a motion to chop down trees to make way for it.
Tesla wants to double the site's capacity to 100 gigawatt hours of battery production and a million cars per year, allowing it to take a leading role in the European market.
The facility has had problems since the beginning. Locals were concerned over the vast amounts of water needed as well as the speed with which construction progressed, although completion was eventually delayed, with the factory opening in 2022.
The Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin was evacuated after a power outage, with the far-left "Volcano Group" claiming responsibility for the sabotage. Thousands of homes lost power during the incident.
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