Damage from German factory fire amounts to 'hundreds of millions' according to Tesla, and far-left group claims it is acts of sabotage

“If the preliminary results are confirmed, this is a malicious attack on our electricity infrastructure,” said Michael Stubgen, Brandenburg state interior minister. He added that this measure will not pass without consequences. “Here, thousands of people have been cut off from essential services and are at risk.” A company spokeswoman confirmed that the factory in Gruenheide had also been evacuated. Electricity was also cut off from homes in the Gruenheide area. Police are currently investigating and said they already suspect arson at the electricity pole.

Tesla has been building cars in Grünheide for nearly two years and employs about 12,500 people at the factory. The company wants to increase production capacity from 300,000 to 1 million cars annually, and therefore wants to expand the factory site by 170 hectares. Local residents last month voted against a proposal to clear the forest so Tesla could build a train station and warehouses there. Ecologists have built huts in the trees, and predict they will disappear if expansion continues.

The attack was claimed in a letter by a far-left activist organization calling itself Vulkangruppe. The letter was signed “Agua de Pau”, the name of a volcanic mountain in the Azores. “We sabotaged Tesla today,” she said. According to the far-left activist group, the goal of the sabotage was to cause the largest possible power outage at the Tesla factory. They state in the letter that “Tesla consumes land, raw materials, people and employees and then produces 6,000 SUVs, killer cars and monster trucks every week” in Gruenheide.

Police are investigating whether the message is real.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk reacted angrily to the arson on the social media platform “Stopping the production of electric cars instead of fossil vehicles is very stupid,” Musk said.

This is not the first time the Vulkangruppe has turned against the Tesla factory. It is also said to have attacked the energy source for building the factory in 2021. Left-wing extremists then accused Tesla of not being “green, environmental and social”.