After a far-left group set an electricity transmission tower near Tesla’s only German factory ablaze on Tuesday, the facility lost all power and was forced to halt production.
That pause was initially expected to last until next Monday, March 11. But now Tesla expects production to be suspended until the end of next week, Bild reports, due to issues repairing the sabotaged 30-meter tower.
Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg’s senior director, Andre Thierig, said Tuesday that he expects the incident to cost a “high nine-figure amount.” But that was when production was planned to resume on Monday.
The gigafactory usually makes 375,000 Model Y SUVs annually — or between 1,300 and 1,400 each day — which sell for about €45,00 ($49,000). That comes out to roughly €60 million ($65.6 million) lost sales per day.
An entity that calls itself “Vulkangruppe” — or “Volcano Group” — claimed responsibility for the attack and called Tesla CEO Elon Musk a “technofascist” who is “following in the prepared brown footsteps of other patriarchal pioneers,” like avowed anti-semite Henry Ford. The group also compared Tesla’s workplace practices to China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghur Muslims, many of whom have been pressed into forced labor.
Musk shot back against the group Tuesday, writing on X that “These are either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals.”
Tesla has pushed to expand the factory to include a rail freight depot, although residents of Grünheide rejected the plans in a non-binding vote due to environmental concerns. The automaker’s plans would involve cutting down about 100 acres of forest near a nature preserve.
Giga Berlin had only recently resumed production after temporarily closing down in January when Houthi rebel attacks on ships in the Red Sea prevented it from acquiring necessary parts.
The shutdown in Germany and a sales slump in China have sent Tesla stock down more than 10% over the past week and wiped out tens of billions of dollars in market capitalization. As a result, Tesla is no longer one of the 10 largest U.S. companies by market cap, with its value trailing behind Visa. It’s the first time in more than a year that Tesla has been surpassed by Visa.
Analysts and investors have renewed their skepticism of Tesla, with Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas openly questioning if Tesla could lose money in 2024.