Last night there was a fire on the site of the new Tesla factory in Germany, near Berlin. On a far-left website, a group of radicals claims responsibility.
About 500 meters from the construction site of Tesla’s first European car factory near Grünheide, on the southeastern outskirts of Berlin, a fire broke out in high-voltage cables last night. The cable fire broke out at around 2:50 am. The fire was discovered because about three square meters of the surrounding forest plot was also on fire. It is very dry because of three warm summers in a row and hardly any rain. The power supply to the job site would, according to RBB interrupted for some time by the fire, but resumed shortly afterwards due to emergency provisions.
Initial findings have shown that the six overhead power cables have been damaged from the outside, the police of the federal state of Brandenburg reports. She goes according to the public broadcaster RBB from a targeted attack using a fire accelerator and does not rule out a political motive. Investigators from the federal police department are therefore assisted in their investigation by colleagues from the state security.
The latter are engaged in the fight against politically motivated crime and are investigating the authenticity of the message on a radical left-wing site claiming the attack. “Tesla is not green, ecological or social,” writes the “volcano group” on indymedia.org. The group claims to have interrupted the power supply to the construction site by setting fire to the six high-voltage cables.
It is not the first time that Tesla has faced opposition from civilians in the construction of the factory. Demonstrations against the factory were previously held due to possible disturbance of the local fauna. Local residents also expressed their dissatisfaction with the arrival of the factory, due to the expected busyness. The factory is expected to open for production at the end of this year. Tesla will build the European Model Y in Grünheide, but also the Model 3 and possibly a new smaller model. According to the latest rumors, the latter could be a compact SUV for which Tesla is working with Toyota, although that is still far from official.