Tesla was forced to stop production at its assembly plant in Germany this week after a far-left extremist group destroyed a high-voltage pylon that resulted in electricity going down at the plant and the surrounding area.
Deutsche Welle, a German public state-owned international broadcaster, said that the “Volcano Group” was responsible for the attack on the power grid.
“We sabotaged Tesla today,” the extremist group said in a letter, noting that it specifically targeted “the electricity supply.”
Police in Brandenburg said that the terrorist attack cut power to thousands of homes in the surrounding region, impacting approximately 60,000 people. Power was restored to most of the area later in the day but the power remained down at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck said: “The attack on the electricity supply is an attack on our critical infrastructure. This must now be clarified and punished quickly. Violence and sabotage must not be a means of conflict.”
Tesla reportedly indicated that production at the plant will not restart quickly following the attack. The automaker has the ability to produce 500,000 vehicles per year, a number that Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly wants to double.
“These are either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals,” Musk said in response to the attacks. “Stopping production of electric vehicles, rather than fossil fuel vehicles, ist extrem dumm.”
“Ist extrem dumm” is German for “is extremely dumb.”
German news media reported that the damage to Tesla will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We are deeply, deeply shocked by what happened today,” said Tesla representative André Thierig. “Hopefully it will become clear over the course of this week whether we can start again at the beginning of next week.”