Production at Tesla’s Berlin factory was halted due to a power outage that may have been caused by an environmental group.
The halt was due to a fire, suspected of being arson, in an area near the factory. Left-wing extremists called the Volcano Group claimed responsibility, citing the damage from “killer cars and monster trucks.”
Tesla’s factory has not been damaged, the police said. Tesla said none of its employees were injured in what it called a reckless attack.
Recently, environmental activists have been protesting in a state forest near the Tesla factory, which the automaker wants to clear to expand the site. That expansion was mentioned in the group’s letter, along with a broader critique of what it called green capitalism.
Over social media, CEO Elon Musk employed broken German to criticize the move. “These are either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals,” he said. “Stopping production of electric vehicles, rather than fossil fuel vehicles, ist extrem dumm.”
The outage also left about 2,000 households without power.
Tesla said it would resume production as soon as possible.
Tesla shares
TSLA,
fell 3% in early trade. The automaker’s stock has dived by 24% this year.
Tesla’s stock-market swoon has resulted in Musk no longer being the world’s richest person.
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