Berlin Tesla store becomes target of protesters

A Tesla store in central Berlin has been attacked with paint bombs and covered with posters. The activists of unknown backgrounds criticise the water consumption of Tesla’s factory in Grünheide and want to stop car production generally.

Six or seven people took part in the action wearing masks and are being searched by the Berlin police. They glued posters saying “Driving For A Dead Planet” to the store windows.

While the group certainly attracted attention, they still could have chosen targets more carefully. A graph from the local broadcaster RBB shows how little water Tesla uses at Giga Berlin, especially when compared to the lignite company LEAG which is still digging for coal in Brandenburg.

Still, the protest got tracking on Twitter. The “Interventionistische Linke” picked up on the thread and threw demands for a non-car-based transport turnaround into the social sphere. IL is not foremost an environmental but a leftist political organisation.

The dispute around water supply and environmental permits around Giga Berlin has been burning for some time. While permits were granted under strict conditions in September 2022, Tesla’s plans had seen as many as 800 objections against the factory once they were launched.

However, the state government strongly favours Giga Berlin and Tesla only applied for an expansion of electric car production a week ago as reported.

twitter.com, tagesspiegel.de (in German)