Left-wing extremist group claims responsibility for Tesla attack

The ‘Vulkan Group’, classified as left-wing extremist, has committed to an ‘attack on the power supply’ near the Tesla factory near Berlin, in protest against the American car manufacturer. “We sabotaged Tesla today,” the group wrote in a letter on Tuesday. The authenticity of the letter has yet to be verified.

The ‘volcano group’ was already suspected of carrying out an arson attack on the power supply at Tesla’s construction site in 2021. At the time, she accused Tesla on the radical left website Indymedia.org of being neither green, ecological nor social.

The police suspect arson

The Gigafactory of the American car manufacturer Tesla has been criticized since the start of construction. On Tuesday morning there was a fire near the factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, near Berlin. A police spokesperson said in an interview with Watson media partner T-online that police received a corresponding tip around 5:15 am.

Due to the fire at an electricity pole at the factory, the power supply in the large factory came to a standstill. Production at Tesla’s only European car factory has come to a standstill after the power outage. This was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the German news agency. The factory in Grünheide near Berlin was evacuated. The police are investigating the first suspicions of arson.

“If the initial findings are confirmed, it will be a treacherous arson on the electricity infrastructure,” Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübken (CDU) said in an interview with the “Tagesspiegel”.

Tesla will likely have to stop production for an extended period of time

While Tesla continued to operate, all measures were taken to secure its production facilities. After consultation with electricity supplier Edis, Tesla does not expect production to restart quickly. According to the spokesperson, the power also went out in Freienbrink, a sub-municipality of Grünheide.

As the newspaper “BZ” and the “Märkische Allgemeine” report, the Steinfurt substation near the factory caught fire in the early morning hours.

According to media reports, the fire brigade had to briefly interrupt the extinguishing work. Because an environmental activists’ tent was found near the site of the fire with a reference to possible buried explosives, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal took over the operation.

Protests against Tesla

When asked, authorities initially did not comment on a possible link with protests around the Tesla factory site. Since Thursday, about 80 to 100 environmental activists have occupied a part of the national forest in Brandenburg near the Tesla factory, which Elon Musk’s company wants to vacate in case of expansion of its site.

The activists have built ten meter-high tree houses and announced that they want to last as long as possible. The citizens’ initiative Grünheide also speaks out against Tesla’s expansion plans and shows solidarity with the occupiers. Conservationists, residents and the local water association fear problems with the water supply in the region, which has been struggling with drought for years. Musk mocked such fears during his site visit in 2021. This went down very badly with many people, as the groundwater level in the region has been declining for years.

At the end of February, German media reported that the American company had again violated German environmental regulations. In the Gigafabriek, up to six times as many hazardous substances are discharged into the wastewater than permitted.

Citizens against expansion of the Tesla factory

The citizens of the municipality of Grünheide near Berlin voted against expanding the Tesla factory site at the end of February. The citizens’ initiative warned community representatives to adhere to the outcome. Tesla still wants to expand the factory.

(t-online/awp/sda/dpa/oli)