Activists claim responsibility for sabotage against Tesla in Germany

 Activists claim responsibility for sabotage against Tesla in Germany

BERLIN - On Tuesday, Tesla was forced to suspend production at its Grünheide factory in the Berlin suburbs, which was cut off from the electricity supply by a fire at a nearby pylon claimed by a far-left group.

The fire, which did not spread to the plant itself, was extinguished by the fire department.

A spokesman for the American electric vehicle manufacturer confirmed that production had been halted and the site evacuated. Tesla's Frankfurt-listed shares were down by more than 5% at the end of the session.

According to local media, the far-left Vulkan Gruppe organization claimed to have "sabotaged Tesla" in a 2,500-word letter attacking the automaker and its multi-billionaire boss, Elon Musk.

"Tesla consumes land, resources, people, workers, and spits out 6,000 SUVs, killer cars and monster trucks every week in return," the letter says.

The police said they had been informed of the existence of the letter, signed "Agua De Pau" (a volcano in the Azores), and said they were checking its authenticity.

"These are either the stupidest ecoterrorists on the planet, or puppets of those who don't have good environmental goals," Elon Musk reacted on X (ex-Twitter).

"Stopping production of electric vehicles, rather than fossil-fuel vehicles, ist extrem dumm," he added, using German for "extremely stupid".

The power company, responsible for connecting the factory to the grid, said its employees were working to repair the damaged high-voltage pylon, whose decommissioning deprives the entire surrounding area of power.

The Tesla factory near Berlin can produce around 500,000 cars a year. However, it is facing hostility from some of the residents of Grüneheide, who last month spoke out against the felling of trees to expand the site.

Tesla wants to double the site's production capacity to one million vehicles and the equivalent of 100 gigawatt-hours of batteries per year in its bid to dominate the European electric car market.

Environmental activists have built huts in the trees threatened with felling, and are occupying the part of the forest likely to be razed if the plant is extended.

A spokesman for Robin des Bois, one of the organizations involved in the protest, said he had no information on the origin of the fire.