Tesla Inc halted production at its German factory yesterday after high-voltage lines supplying the carmaker’s only European plant were set on fire in an act of “sabotage” claimed by a far-left group.
Emergency services were called in the early hours yesterday to reports of a burning electricity pylon southeast of Berlin, close to the Tesla plant.
The blaze was extinguished but damage to the lines knocked out power to the factory, as well as surrounding villages.
Photo: Reuters
After police said they had launched an investigation into suspected arson the act was claimed by far-left activists from the so-called Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).
“With our sabotage, we have set ourselves the goal of achieving the biggest possible blackout of the Gigafactory,” the group said in a statement posted on a far-left Web site.
The group highlighted concerns about the environmental impact of the plant and the local water supply.
“We feel connected to all the people who won’t let Tesla turn the tap off,” the group said.
Michael Stuebgen, interior minister for Brandenburg state, said that if arson was confirmed, it would be “a perfidious attack on our electricity infrastructure.”
“Thousands of people have been cut off from their basic supply and put in danger. The rule of law will react to such an act of sabotage with the utmost severity.”
Tesla said the production facilities at the Gruenheide plant were in a “safe state” after the shutdown, and workers had been sent home.
“We are in close contact with the authorities and of course (electricity supplier) Edis. We are currently unable to say when production can be expected to resume,” the company said in a statement.
The power outage is the latest problem to hit the factory. In January, most production was halted at the site for two weeks due to a shortage of parts following shipping delays caused by Yemeni rebel attacks in the Red Sea, a vital trade route.
Tesla’s German plant started production in 2022 following an arduous two-year approval and construction process dogged by administrative and legal obstacles.
Tesla wants to expand the site by 170 hectares (420 acres) and boost production up to one million vehicles annually to feed Europe’s growing demand for electric cars and take on rivals who are shifting away from combustion engine vehicles.
But the plans have annoyed local residents, who voted against the project in a non-binding ballot last month.
After the vote, Tesla said it might have to rethink the plans.
“We recognize that the citizens of Gruenheide have concerns in connection with the planned expansion of the site,” the company said.
Environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the factory run by Elon Musk’s company recently set up a camp in a wooded area near the plant.
Protestors at the forest camp, situated in an area of forest that the carmaker will have to raze if the expansion goes ahead, share many of the locals’ objections to the factory.
As well as deforestation, the activists say there is a threat to local drinking water supplies.
Stop Tesla, the group behind the protest camp, said yesterday it had “no information” about the cause of the fire and shared its “solidarity with the workers at Tesla and the local residents.”
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS