Tesla’s factory outside Berlin, Germany will likely be shut down for days and cost the automaker more than $100 million, after a suspected arson attack on the local power grid.
The fire didn’t spread to Tesla’s factory and nobody was harmed, though employees were evacuated. Thousands of residents in the area also briefly lost power as a result.
A purported activist organization calling itself the “Volcano Group” took credit for the fire in a letter posted online Tuesday. Authorities have not confirmed their involvement, according to Reuters. The same group took credit for a similar fire near the site in 2021.
The group said it sabotaged Tesla because the company “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.” Because the complete destruction of the Gigafactory and with it the sawing off of ‘technofascists’ like Elon Musk are a step on the path to liberation from patriarchy.”
CEO Elon Musk wrote (in German) in a post on his social media platform, X, that the arsonists were “extremely dumb.”
The factory — Tesla’s only one in Europe — has had a contentious first few years. Before it opened in 2021, construction lagged as locals haggled with Tesla over environmental concerns. Last month, Tesla’s plan to expand the factory was also voted down by the public. But it’s crucial to Tesla’s operations on the continent, as it now makes around 6,000 electric vehicles per week.
