Grünheide: Production is underway and Musk visits the Tesla plant

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has visited the Gigafactory in Grünheide. Following an arson attack last week, the assembly lines there were at a standstill for a week. The factory has had power again since Monday and production has been resuming there since Wednesday morning.

However, there is not much to report about Elon Musk’s visit. He spoke directly to the employees of the Tesla factory – in a specially set up tent. A Tesla vehicle was parked in front of the media representatives and played loud music so that the assembled press could not hear anything he said. Only a photo was leaked showing Musk on stage with his son on his shoulders.

It was only this morning that the head of the works council at Gigafactory 4 in Grünheide, Brandenburg, announced that production there would restarted. “The machines have been started up in a controlled and safe manner so that the early shift can start up again,” she told the German public broadcaster rbb.

On Tuesday, 5 March, an arson attack was reportedly carried out on an electricity mast located around ten kilometres from the Tesla factory, causing a power outage at the Gigafactory and in six surrounding communities. Hours after the attack, the self-proclaimed “Volcano Group,” a left-wing extremist network, claimed responsibility for the attack. The police have confirmed the authenticity of the letter of confession. The public prosecutor’s office is now investigating.

On Sunday evening, it became apparent that network operator Edis could complete the repairs to the electricity mast sooner than initially expected. On Monday evening, it was announced that the work had been completed: “The power supply to the Gigafactory was restored a few minutes ago,” wrote plant manager André Thierig on LinkedIn at around 9.30 pm. He continued: “The measures to restart the plant are now running at full speed under all safety precautions. It will certainly take some time before we fully resume production, but the most important step has been taken!”

Meanwhile, the German Handelsblatt estimates that the attack caused around 400 million euros worth of damage. The newspaper assumes that 8,000 Model Ys with an average sales price of 50,000 euros each could not be produced during the power outage (1,000 per day).

The business newspaper also quotes experts from Berylls, according to whom up to 40 unfinished vehicles in production at the time of the blackout will probably have to be scrapped. Tesla has not provided any official information on the damage incurred.

welt.de, rbb24.de