Tesla Gigafactory Berlin was attacked by saboteurs who set cables supplying electricity to the construction site on fire.
An alleged confession letter points to political reasons targeting Tesla.
Tesla’s project to build a factory outside Berlin has faced some opposition, but it has now reached a new level.
The police confirmed that a fire occurred last night on ground electric cables that supply power to the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin construction site.
They are assuming that it was an “attack,” as it looks like flammable liquid was used to set the cables on fire.
RBB 24 reported on the Brandenburg police report about the incident (translated from German):
“On the night of Wednesday, according to the police, kutz had come to a fire before 3 a.m. 500 meters from the construction site, in which a small forest of about three square meters went up in flames. According to the first findings of the police, several as yet unknown perpetrators apparently damaged the cables and manipulated them so that they caught fire. To do this, they are said to have used a flammable liquid and tied the cables to a site fence by wire, it said.”
The police don’t have a lead on suspects, but an alleged confession letter has spread on social media from a group calling itself ‘Vulkangruppe.’
In the letter, the group confirmed that it was targeting Tesla:
“On the night of May 25th to 26th, 2021, we cut the power supply to the construction site of the Tesla Giga factory in Grünheide near Berlin by setting fire to six high-voltage cables laid above ground to have. Tesla is neither green, ecological nor social. Our fire stands against the lie of the green automobile.”
However, the energy supplier who owns the power cables confirmed that the attack failed to affect Tesla’s construction site.
They said that the fire didn’t force them to stop the power supply.
Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin project is very important to the future of the automaker and especially its expansion in Europe with the launch of the Model Y in the market.
The automaker was first supposed to start production at the factory in July 2021, but there have been many rumors of delays.
Most recently, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla could start production toward the end of the year.
This isn’t the first time that Tesla has been the target of saboteurs.
Last year, Tesla and the FBI managed to avoid a ransomware sabotage attempt at Gigafactory Nevada.
The automaker’s Supercharger stations have also been sabotaged in the past.
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