Tesla’s German factory will reopen next week, the head of its works council has revealed. By Reuters
© Reuters. Workers at a Tesla factory near Berlin gathered in front of the so-called Gigafactory in March to protest an arson attack by far-left extremists in Gruenheide near Berlin that is expected to cause a major power outage by the end of next week.
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(This March 8th article has been revised to change the weekly output capacity to 6,000 units in paragraph 7.)
Oliver Barth
GRUENHEIDE, Germany (Reuters) – Tesla’s (NASDAQ:) German plant near Berlin will resume operations next week after a power outage halted production, the head of the works council said on Friday.
The Tesla electric vehicle (EV) factory has been closed since March 5 after a fire broke out in a nearby power tower, which police are investigating as an arson attack.
German police said they believed the letter from a far-left group called the Volcano Group claiming responsibility for the fire was genuine.
“We will restart the factory next week,” Michaela Schmitz told a gathering of hundreds of workers at the electric vehicle (EV) production site, known as the Gigafactory.
Some held banners that read “We are not shutting down!”
“Along with many chapters of outstanding achievement, this attack will go down as a dark chapter in our history, but that does not stop us,” Schmitz said.
The attack disrupted 12,500 field staff and meant the US EV manufacturer was unable to produce around 6,000 vehicles per week, which is expected to result in losses of at least hundreds of millions of euros.
The Tesla factory in Grunheide has been the subject of criticism for years from some local residents and activists concerned about its environmental impact.
Schmitz said Tesla employees will receive information about the restart soon, but gave no further details about the potential timing.
“Colleagues have been accused of sitting at home instead of contributing together to a successful energy transition,” Schmitz added.
Tesla previously said the factory might not have electricity until the end of next week.
Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said on Friday that it had taken over the investigation into the arson and was investigating charges of terrorism and “acts of unconstitutional destruction.”
