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Musk visits Berlin Tesla factory as production resumes a week after suspected arson attack
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (4th from right) arrives at the Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, March 13, 2024

BILLIONAIRE buffoon and Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited the company’s first European plant toay as production resumed a week after a suspected arson attack cut its power supply.

Production at Tesla’s plant in Gruenheide, near Berlin, came to a standstill last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of residents, nearby hospitals, nursing homes and a big logistics centre for a German grocery chain were also initially affected.

The electricity supply to the plant was restored on Monday evening.

Authorities in the state of Brandenburg, where the plant is located, have said they suspect that someone deliberately set fire to a high-voltage transmission line on an electricity pylon.

A militant leftist organisation calling itself the Volcano Group said it was behind the fire, accusing Tesla of “extreme exploitation conditions” and calling for the “complete destruction of the gigafactory.”

The German federal prosecutor’s office took over the investigation, citing an initial suspicion that a terrorist organisation may have been involved in the attack.

The power outage came as environmental activists have been protesting in a forest near the plant against plans to expand the facility.

The company now wants to add a freight depot, warehouses and a kindergarten. Those plans would entail felling more than 247 acres of forest.

That has drawn opposition from environmentalists and some other local groups, who also worry about possible effects on the area’s water supply.

 

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