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Tesla factory in Grünheide: standstill after a fire on an electricity pylon

Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa

After the alleged attack on the power supply at the Tesla factory in Brandenburg, the company commented on the damage.

The plant manager cited a sum of several hundred million euros as downtime costs.

“That means economic damage for us in the high nine-figure range,” said plant manager André Thierig.

According to information from the German Press Agency, Thierig is referring to the loss of sales of vehicles that cannot be produced and therefore cannot be sold.

The plant manager expected a breakdown of more than 1,000 cars per day and expected a loss of production for at least this week.

Tesla's Model Y is manufactured in Grünheide.

The selling price for this is between around 45,000 euros and just under 60,000 euros.

On Tuesday morning, an electricity pylon, which is also responsible for supplying the factory's electricity, was set on fire in a field near the Tesla factory in Grünheide.

The “Vulkan Group,” which is classified as left-wing extremist, claims responsibility for the attack and claimed responsibility for it in a letter.

The Brandenburg police classified the letter of confession as genuine.

The investigators assume that the arson was intentionally set.

Brandenburg's Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) has now spoken on the phone with Tesla boss Elon Musk.

“Elon Musk reacted very matter-of-factly and confidently,” Steinbach told the Tagesspiegel.

»There was immediate agreement that nothing should happen in response that would have allowed the assassins to succeed.

At the same time, of course, he called for both a solidarity reaction and concrete trust-building reactions to support the company and its employees.

It's not just Tesla that is affected by the power outage.

Operations in a large logistics center belonging to the Edeka retail chain are also disrupted.

Supermarkets could only be supplied to a limited extent.

A company spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the logistics center in Freienbrink had been affected by the power outage since Tuesday.

The cooling of the food in the warehouse was largely ensured using emergency generators.

»We hope that we will be able to restart operations later this day with several additional emergency generators.

It is still unclear when the regular power supply can be restored by the service provider. The company did not provide any information about the damage.

According to Edeka, around 500 markets in Berlin and Brandenburg are normally supplied with fruit and vegetables as well as food that requires refrigeration from Freienbrink - the town belongs to the municipality of Grünheide.

Because of the disruption, we are working hard to process delivery flows via other logistics centers, it said.

Nevertheless, the supply of fresh produce to the Berlin and Brandenburg markets is currently being significantly restricted.

Industry representatives see cyber attacks as the greatest danger

In view of the incident in Brandenburg, German industry is calling for better protection of important facilities.

“Infrastructures are the lifelines of the German economy,” said Martin Wansleben, Managing Director of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).

»Unfortunately, the protection of these infrastructures now needs to be urgently adapted to the changing security situation.

It is essential that investors can continue to see Germany as a safe country." The competition for investments depends crucially on the quality of good location factors.

Security against criminal or terrorist-motivated attacks on the infrastructure has so far been part of this.

Wansleben said the infrastructure is particularly at risk from cyber attacks from abroad.

"We need really effective cooperation between the state and business, but also legal clarity on the relevant issues."

The President of the Munich economic research institute Ifo, Clemens Fuest, said in Berlin that cases like the one at Tesla are the exception.

If they accumulate, this must be assessed differently.

“Infrastructure must be reliable, and it has always been so in Germany.” There are already vulnerabilities in the infrastructure, but this has not yet been an overall economic problem.

"I don't think this is an issue that has bothered investors so far."

“A damage to the image of Germany as an investment location”

Auto industry expert Stefan Bratzel said the state must ensure that criminal energy is kept in check.

The incident at Tesla was “damaging the image of Germany as an investment location.”

Tesla is being closely watched internationally, so the case is receiving international attention, said Bratzel.

In addition to the power supply, there are other ways to disrupt the production of car manufacturers, said the head of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) in Bergisch Gladbach.

If a car manufacturer like Volkswagen produces electricity itself with a power plant on the factory premises, it might be better protected against such attacks.

However, access routes and thus parts of suppliers could also be blocked, for example.

If certain parts are not available, cars cannot be built, said Bratzel.

Cybersecurity also plays a role in production in the factories.

mmq/dpa/Reuters