Berlin/London
CNN
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A bunch of far-left activists has claimed it was behind an arson assault on a high-voltage electrical energy pylon Tuesday that minimize off the facility provide to Tesla’s manufacturing facility in Germany.
The activists, calling themselves the “Volcano Group,” claimed duty for the hearth in a letter printed on the choice German media web site Kontrapolis. Police within the German state of Brandenburg instructed CNN they had been conscious of the letter and had been checking its authenticity.
The group wrote that it had “sabotaged” Tesla (TSLA) as a result of its plant close to the German capital Berlin “consumes Earth, assets, folks, labor and spits out 6,000 SUVs, killer automobiles and monster vans per week.”
“The manufacturing facility contaminates the groundwater and consumes large quantities of the already scarce consuming water useful resource for its merchandise,” the activists stated within the letter.
German public broadcaster ZDF reported that the manufacturing facility had been evacuated and its staff despatched house, including that it was unclear when manufacturing would restart. Tesla has not responded to a CNN request for remark.
Commenting on the letter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X: “These are both the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those that don’t have good environmental targets.
“Stopping manufacturing of electrical autos, relatively than fossil gasoline autos, ist extrem dumm.”
Manufacturing on the manufacturing facility will not be anticipated to renew earlier than subsequent week, Reuters quoted plant supervisor Andre Thierig as saying.
Shares within the maker of electrical automobiles took a beating Tuesday, falling 4.6% in late morning commerce in New York.
The assault on the transmission tower additionally minimize off energy provide to villages close to the manufacturing facility.
“1000’s of individuals have been minimize off from their primary provide and put at risk. The rule of legislation will react to such an act of sabotage with the utmost severity,” Michael Stuebgen, the inside minister for Brandenburg, stated in an announcement, including {that a} legal investigation had begun.
“If the preliminary findings are confirmed, it is a perfidious assault on our electrical energy infrastructure. This can have penalties,” he stated.
Tesla’s large plant — situated about 30 kilometers (18 miles) southeast of the German capital — is its just one in Europe and is at present able to producing 375,000 electric cars a year.
Final 12 months, the corporate lodged an application to ramp up the manufacturing facility’s manufacturing capability to 1 million electrical autos a 12 months, which might make it Europe’s largest automotive plant.
However in February, native residents voted towards a movement to clear sufficient forest for Tesla to broaden the positioning, leaving it to native authorities to determine methods to proceed, in line with Reuters.
Since Thursday, round 80-100 environmental activists have been occupying a part of the forest close to the plant, which Tesla needs to clear for the growth, ZDF reported Tuesday.
Robin Wooden, one of many environmental teams participating within the occupation of the forest, stated it had no details about the explanations for the facility outage. “We firmly reject any reference to Robin Wooden’s actions,” it added in a statement.
In one other setback earlier this 12 months, Tesla stated it will pause most manufacturing on the Berlin plant for 2 weeks as a result of assaults on container ships within the Purple Sea had delayed the supply of elements. Manufacturing was on account of resume on February 12, in line with CNN affiliate RTL.
This text has been up to date with extra info.
Stephanie Halasz in London contributed reporting.