Tesla could lose more than $1 billion from its Germany factory being halted after an arson
After a far-left group set an electricity transmission tower near Tesla’s only German factory ablaze on Tuesday, the facility lost all power and was forced to halt production.
That pause was initially expected to last until next Monday, March 11. But now Tesla expects production to be suspended until the end of next week, Bild reports, due to issues repairing the sabotaged 30-meter tower.
Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg’s senior director, Andre Thierig, said Tuesday that he expects the incident to cost a “high nine-figure amount.” But that was when production was planned to resume on Monday.
The gigafactory usually makes 375,000 Model Y SUVs annually — or between 1,300 and 1,400 each day — which sell for about €45,00 ($49,000). That comes out to roughly €60 million ($65.6 million) lost sales per day.
An entity that calls itself “Vulkangruppe” — or “Volcano Group” — claimed responsibility for the attack and called Tesla CEO Elon Musk a “technofascist” who is “following in the prepared brown footsteps of other patriarchal pioneers,” like avowed anti-semite Henry Ford. The group also compared Tesla’s workplace practices to China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghur Muslims, many of whom have been pressed into forced labor.
