American electric vehicle maker Tesla had to halt production at its German factory after electrical cables powering the plant were set on fire in an alleged act of ‘sabotage’ by far-left group ‘Vulkangruppe Tesla Abschalten’, or ‘Volcano group shutting down Tesla’, which claimed responsibility according to Reuters.
The attack near Tesla’s manufacturing facility, the first for the EV maker in Europe, left it without power on Tuesday. Billionaire Elon Musk has called the act ‘extremely stupid’.
Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) Musk said “These are either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals. Stopping production of electric vehicles, rather than fossil fuel vehicles, ist extrem dumm,” he tweeted, using the German for ‘extremely dumb’.
The report further states that this attack was the latest setback for Tesla, which has had a bumpy ride in Europe of late, facing union pressure for collective bargaining agreements in the Nordics and supply disruptions as a result of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The Tesla facility, which employs around 12,500 people, was evacuated and most employees sent home. Local German media published a letter purportedly from a far-left activist organisation called the Volcano Group that claimed responsibility for the incident, in a 2,500-word attack on Tesla and its billionaire CEO Musk.
