Stop on power supply
Plant manager: Tesla is missing out on several hundred million euros
March 6, 2024, 2:25 p.m
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The electric car manufacturer Tesla expects a production outage for days after the attack on the power supply in Grünheide. An initial damage assessment shows that the downtime costs are considerable.
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla has cited a sum of several hundred million euros as downtime costs after production stopped as a result of an attack on the power supply at the factory in Grünheide near Berlin. “This means economic damage for us in the high nine-figure range,” said plant manager André Thierig.
According to information from the German Press Agency, Thierig is referring to the loss of sales of vehicles that cannot be produced and therefore cannot be sold. The plant manager expected a breakdown of more than 1,000 cars per day and expected a loss of production for at least this week. Tesla’s Model Y is manufactured in Grünheide. The selling price for this is between around 45,000 euros and just under 60,000 euros.
Unknown perpetrators set fire to a power pole that also supplies the Tesla factory with electricity. The factory was evacuated and production stopped for the time being. Tesla expects production to be down for another few days. Tens of thousands of residents in the region were temporarily affected by a power outage.
Meanwhile, German industry is demanding better protection of the infrastructure. “Infrastructures are the lifelines of the German economy,” said Martin Wansleben, managing director of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), to the Reuters news agency. “Unfortunately, the protection of these infrastructures now needs to be urgently adapted to the changed security situation. It is essential that investors can continue to assess Germany as a safe country.” The competition for investments depends crucially on the quality of good location factors. Security against criminal or terrorist-motivated attacks on the infrastructure has so far been part of this.
The left-wing extremist “Vulkangruppe” claimed responsibility for the attack. The Brandenburg police classified the letter of confession as genuine. The investigators assume that the arson was intentionally set.