Environmental activists say they torched electricity pylon at Berlin Tesla facility to shut it down

Environmental activists claimed responsibility for igniting an electricity pylon in the German capital Tuesday, an attack that crippled Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg.

Representatives from the Volcano Group claimed responsibility for the blaze in a letter posted to the German site Kontrapolis, saying their aim was to shut down the Tesla facility.

“The factory contaminates the groundwater and consumes huge amounts of the already scarce drinking water resource for its products,” the letter reads.

The tower is used to power the Tesla factory and several neighboring villages around Berlin. Workers evacuated the plant shortly after the attack, with plans to restart production next week.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk lashed out at the attackers on X Tuesday, saying they should direct their ire at fossil fuel vehicles instead of his electric cars.

“These are either the dumbest ecoterrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals,” he wrote.

Berlin authorities responded angrily to the attack, saying that cutting off electricity is irresponsible and dangerous.

“Thousands of people have been cut off from their basic supply and put in danger,” Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stuebgen said. “The rule of law will react to such an act of sabotage with the utmost severity.”

According to reports, factory workers were sent home for the day, with no word from Tesla on when production will restart. The electric vehicle company’s Berlin plant is its largest in Europe, housing over 12,000 workers and producing over 375,000 cars per year.

The attack comes as Tesla faces protests from local citizens over the company’s planned factory expansion. Last year Tesla applied to spread the Berlin factory to a nearby forest. Around 100 environmental protestors from the environmental group Robin Wood have occupied the woods since last week. The group has denied any involvement in Tuesday’s outage.