Tesla Berlin gigafactory goes dark after alleged eco-sabotage
- Reference: 1709649134
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/05/tesla_berlin_arson_attack/
- Source link:
Multiple news sources in Germany have reported the incident and cited German police's belief that the fire was suspected to be arson. Michael Stübgen, interior minister for the German state of Brandenburg, where the gigafactory is located and the fire took place, has likewise [1]called the fire "a perfidious arson attack" that damaged a high-voltage power line so badly it cut off power to both the Tesla factory and surrounding towns.
"If the initial findings are confirmed, this will be a perfidious attack on our electricity infrastructure," Stübgen said in a statement today. "Thousands of people were cut off from basic services and put in danger."
[2]
Stübgen added that, while arson is suspected, the perpetrators are unknown, "so I would warn against hasty speculation."
[3]
[4]
While authorities have yet to confirm the nature of the incident, the left-wing extremist Volcano Group claimed responsibility in an alleged [5]post to German alternative news site Kontrapolis. The post accused Tesla of eating up "earth, resources, people [and] labor" and called Tesla owner Elon Musk a "technofascist" whose "green capitalism" is "a totalitarian technological attack on society."
"Our goal with our sabotage is to cause the largest possible blackout of the Gigafactory. We have ruled out endangering our lives and those of other people," Volcano Group said in the post. "The shutdown of production in the automotive industry is the beginning of the end of a world of destruction."
[6]
It's not clear how long the factory or other locals will be without power, but if Volcano Group is responsible and its claims are accurate, they were aiming for maximum damage and repair difficulty at the substation.
[7]Legal eagles demand $6B in Tesla stock after overturning Musk's mega pay package
[8]Tesla's Cybertruck may not be so stainless after all
[9]SAP hits brakes on Tesla company car deal
[10]Tesla power steering probe upgraded after thousands more incidents reported
Tesla didn't respond to questions for this story.
Tesla spark causes inevitable fire
The arson attack may be an extreme step, yet opposition to Tesla's gigafactory in Grünheide isn't new.
The company had been planning to expand operations at the factory, which would necessitate knocking down a forest neighboring the current factory, but Grünheide residents have opposed the plan.
Residents voted last month [11]against a motion to allow Tesla to clear the forest in a bid to [12]double production capacity at the plant. The vote was nonbinding, however, and environmental activists have since constructed a [13]protest camp in the forest in a bid to prevent its destruction if Tesla and local authorities proceed with their plan.
According to the BBC, some locals have joined the protesters in the forest. Whether those same locals will remain sympathetic after an arson attack knocked out their electricity may be a bigger ask. ®
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[1] https://mik.brandenburg.de/mik/de/start/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail-pm-und-meldungen/~05-03-2024-anschlag-auf-strominfrastruktur#
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZedPtk-sXZ8HhC9tuKAe7gAAAYM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZedPtk-sXZ8HhC9tuKAe7gAAAYM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZedPtk-sXZ8HhC9tuKAe7gAAAYM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://kontrapolis.info/12465/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZedPtk-sXZ8HhC9tuKAe7gAAAYM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/04/musk_tesla_pay_fee/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/tesla_cybertruck_rust/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/06/sap_tesla_company_cars/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/02/tesla_power_steering_probe_upgraded/
[11] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-faces-rejection-locals-plans-expand-german-site-2024-02-20/
[12] https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/07/21/tesla-aims-to-double-production-capacity-in-german-gigafactory-targeting-1-million-evs-ann
[13] https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-68464382
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: It is not left wing extremists
So who is to blame? The 'far right'?
Re: It is not left wing extremists
So who is to blame? The 'far right'?
Give it time. But it's one of those ignoring history things. There are a lot of ecoterrorist groups on assorted watch lists, and performing increasingly violent 'direct action'. Yet most of the media and idiots like Sunak gloss over the dangers from far-left extremists.
Re: It is not left wing extremists
RWNJs make any excuse to deflect that they are aligned with the far-right. Which is more-and-more the biggest danger to our domestic security here in the West.
Re: It is not left wing extremists
I think you will find that your claim is false.
There has recently been a conviction in Germany over a series of really rather brutal attacks in broad daylight where a far-left group would literally jump people and beat them with hammers and bats. In London there have been people pretty much calling for the erasure of Israel as a nation and a HUGE rise in antisemitism including attacks on Jewish owned businesses and threats to Jewish people.
NONE of this is from the right of the political divide.
Re: It is not left wing extremists
Because the far-right never harmed, or called for the harming of Jews, ever. Right?
Re: It is not left wing extremists
> So who is to blame? The 'far right'?
Could have been anyone at this point. Usually any protest comes with a fifth column of twats trying to get the whole group banned, maybe under the oversight of government / police / secret services
Re: It is not left wing extremists
Ah, a false flag?
Re: It is not left wing extremists
We don't know yet, my point is only to counter the idea that it was "obviously the protesters wot did it".
False flags do exist, and have done since long before the Trojan war.. He who claims that "anyone who talks about false flags is a self-discrediting conspiracy theorist nutjob" is a nutjob with an axe to grind himself.
Re: It is not left wing extremists
You don't really need to have someone to blame immediately after the event. You can wait until at least some proper investigation is done. Even if it turns out to really be whoever the finger was first pointed at, just because you didn't point the finger too right away doesn't make you complicit or anything.
Re: It is not left wing extremists
Could your bias be any clearer? Responsibility has been claimed, while actual culpability remains up in the air, but you know for a fact it wasn't left wing terrorists and that's just [insert conspiracy theory here].
The irony is that you far left nutters are basically indistinguishable from the far right types you claim to be opposed to.
Surely there wouldn't be a single point of failure to take out a whole plant and town?
Surely there wouldn't be a single point of failure to take out a whole plant and town?
Why not? there might be just one
Power distribution networks were never designed to be resilient against someone deliberately attacking a sub-station (cf. right-ists shooting sub-stations in the US of A and causing blackouts last year)... and, as the networks rarely get redesigned, they will remain vulnerable.
FWIW I think the original thought process, back when people were generally more sensible, went something like "No-one would be demented enough to set fire to a sub-station would they? no? OK" yet here we are with demeneted people everywhere.
Where were those eco-activists when the decision was taken to turn off Germany's nuclear plants and strip-mine lignite to burn instead?
Protesting FOR the closure of the nuclear power plants and protesting against coal.
German far left eco groups tend to be against EVERYTHING including wind turbines! They are a miserable bunch.
"German far left eco groups tend to be against EVERYTHING"
One could argue that they aren't left or right, they're just wrong.
It is not left wing extremists
It is still under investigation. You should check which German sources you ask. Because some newspapers, which should be called instigator-papers, prematurely blame left-wing terrorists just 'cause they love to blame everything on them.
Don't trust Bild (similar to The Sun for UK), or its local branch bz-berlin which is even worse since it is "locally". Both are known for making up truth instead of reporting it.
And just because someone claims to be responsible doesn't mean they are - we have enough examples of such claimers.