The area has been the scene of a series of environmental protests since Musk started construction two years ago.
The German state of Brandenburg has documented previous arson attacks by far-left activists. This includes Gruenheide in May 2021 where a Tesla power supply site was attacked.
More recently environmental activists occupied tree houses in the forested area in an attempt to stop the trees from being cleared for the planned factory expansion.
Reports claim that bomb disposal units were deployed following the discovery of a suspicious sign found by emergency services that reads “ordnance buried here”.
Gigafactory Expansion Challenges
For Tesla, the arson attack represents, yet another, hurdle in its European endeavors.
January marked the first time the carmaker was able to produce 6,000 cars in a one-week period. But the production ramp-up is slowed for now.
Tesla has been trying to expand its plant. The current facility has a capacity to produce 500,000 cars a year. The company wants to double the site’s capacity to 100 gigawatt hours of battery production. And to 1 million cars per year.
