Tesla-Boss Elon Musik gets his own picture of the situation in Brandenburg: The 52-year-old paid a short-term visit to the electric car manufacturer’s only European plant in Grünheide. Production in the car manufacturer’s so-called Giga Factory came to a standstill for several days after an arson attack on the power supply.
The entrepreneur landed at BER airport on Wednesday morning, drove on to the factory premises and was greeted there by numerous employees. The car manufacturer supported its employees. “They can’t stop us!” he shouted to them amid cheers and shouts of “Elon” and unequivocally acknowledged the location. Musk was accompanied on the trip by his son, X Æ A-XII, whom he lifted onto his shoulders during his appearance in front of the employees. “Yes, absolutely,” said Musk when asked by a journalist whether there were further plans to expand the facility. “I think this is a great place.”
During his visit to Germany, Musk also met with the heads of government from Brandenburg and Berlin, Dietmar Woidke (SPD) and Kai Wegner (CDU). “We also talked about the attack on the power pole, which led to the interruption of production,” Woidke wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. “We agree that this was an act of terrorism against all of us. Because this was clearly directed against the economic boom in Brandenburg and thus also against the new jobs that were created by the plant.”
Production is running again
After days of standstill, production has been running again since Wednesday. “The machines were checked and started up safely,” said works council chairwoman Michaela Schmitz on rbb24 Inforadio on Wednesday. This meant the early shift could start again.
The US car manufacturer’s factory has been online again since Monday evening. A Fire at a high-voltage pylon near the Tesla factory In Brandenburg, the power supply to the factory and numerous households was interrupted last week. In a letter on the Internet, the organization “Turn off Tesla Volcano Group!”, which was classified as left-wing extremist by the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution, claimed responsibility for the crime. The police classified the letter of confession as authentic.
The US electric car manufacturer’s factory was abruptly stopped by the power outage; plant manager Andre Thierig estimated the damage from the days-long standstill to be in the high nine-figure range. The company was unable to produce more than 1,000 vehicles per day.