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Tesla factory in Grünheide: demand is currently low
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
After the attack on Tesla's power supply in Grünheide, the company estimated the damage to be in the high three-digit million range.
Industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer estimates it to be lower.
"In my opinion, given the current market situation, the pure loss of production for a week is more comparable to damage of perhaps 100 million euros," said the director of the Center for Automotive Research in Bochum to the German Press Agency.
"A nine-figure sum is already a high number, which is only understandable if there was very high damage to machines as a result of the fire at Tesla."
The US electric car manufacturer has to interrupt its production for significantly longer than previously expected after the attack.
The company announced on Wednesday evening that the stop would probably last until the end of next week.
The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported on it.
Plant manager André Thierig had originally assumed that the production lines could start again next Monday - but now there would be another week of downtime.
Thierig had previously estimated the economic damage at a high nine-figure range - that would be hundreds of millions of euros.
He included the loss of sales from vehicles that cannot be sold and initially assumed there would be a failure this week.
On Tuesday, unknown perpetrators set fire to an electricity pylon in a field over which the cables that supply the Tesla factory run.
A left-wing extremist group said it was responsible for the attack.
The police believe the letter of confession is authentic.
However, Dudenhöffer sees opportunities for the car manufacturer to compensate for the failure.
»They can't build cars at the moment.
“Demand for electric vehicles is also poor at the moment,” said Dudenhöffer.
"In February, Tesla brought 22 percent fewer vehicles onto the market in Germany with around 6,000 new registrations than in the same month last year." Demand is also suffering in markets like China.
"Therefore, in my opinion, the Tesla factories in Shanghai and the USA are currently not being used to capacity and can absorb the Grünheide outages."
Tesla is connected to the public power grid, while Volkswagen produces the electricity itself for its main plant in Wolfsburg.
The industry expert does not see the installation of emergency power generators as the optimal solution.
“You can use emergency power generators, but they also incur costs and have to be maintained,” said Dudenhöffer.
mik/dpa AFX