The alleged attack on the power supply at the Tesla car factory in Grünheide near Berlin has sparked a debate about better protection of sensitive infrastructure in Germany.
The German economy is pushing for more security after the attack on the power supply to the Tesla car factory in Grünheide near Berlin. “Politics and business are jointly required to ensure the security of networks and critical systems,” said the managing director of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), Martin Wansleben, on Wednesday. The federal government wants to use a law to strengthen the protection of important networks and systems and support the security efforts of operators. Wansleben criticized that the government had been delaying the adoption of the relevant law for months.
Production stoppage until the end of next week
After the attack on a power pole, production at the US electric car manufacturer Tesla in Grünheide will likely be interrupted until the end of next week. The company announced this on Wednesday evening upon request. The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported on it. On Tuesday, previously unknown perpetrators set fire to a power pole in a field that is also responsible for supplying the Tesla factory. Production in Grünheide was then stopped. Tens of thousands of residents in the region were also affected by the power outage.
In a letter of responsibility, the left-wing extremist “Vulkan Group” claimed responsibility for the attack. The police described the letter as authentic. The group accuses Tesla of “extreme conditions of exploitation” and wrote of sabotage against Tesla.
With the forced longer production stop, the damage to Tesla is likely to increase. Most recently, the company said the damage was several hundred million euros. But it was still expected that production would restart next Monday. Now there would be another week of standstill.
The energy network operator Edis wants to end the power outage at Tesla as soon as possible. The emergency services were working with the highest priority on a temporary technical solution to resupply the previously unsupplied industrial settlement and production as well as the logistics center as quickly as possible, the company announced on Wednesday.
Government spokesman condemns attack
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Wednesday that the federal government condemns such attacks in the strongest possible terms. The Federal Ministry of the Interior plans for the cabinet to deal with the so-called Kritis umbrella law in the first half of the year. This is intended to better protect the critical infrastructure against dangers. In addition, it is the obligation of the network operators to protect their infrastructure, said the spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Maximilian Kall. This is of course easier with a substation than with a power pole standing in a field.
The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries suggested that the federal and state governments be made more responsible for averting danger. Public access to critical infrastructure data must be restricted.
Allegations from the volcano group
The left-wing extremist “Vulkan Group” accuses Tesla of “extreme conditions of exploitation”. The group wrote of sabotage against Tesla. “We consider the letter to be genuine,” said a spokeswoman for the Brandenburg police. Even if the consequences are much more serious this time, the attack follows the same pattern as the arson attack in May 2021, in which a power cable that supplied, among other things, the Tesla construction site was damaged. At that time too, a letter of self-incrimination appeared in the name of the “volcano group” and was deemed authentic by the security authorities.
The perpetrators could not be identified at the time. That’s why the security authorities make do with the working hypothesis that these are rather loosely networked small left-wing extremist groups with a focus on Berlin and Brandenburg.
What is certain is that in recent years, US companies in particular that wanted to settle in the Berlin-Brandenburg region were not always welcome – even beyond attacks and sabotage. In Brandenburg, among others, environmentalists, residents who felt disturbed and the AfD mobilized against Tesla’s Gigafactory. The US internet company Alphabet acquired a former substation in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin and announced at the end of 2016 that it would establish a campus for young companies and other organizations there. Critics protested because, in their view, the campus would have significantly changed the area and made it more expensive. Ultimately, Google gave up the start-up campus. When asked by a journalist whether the federal government feared negative consequences for Germany as a business location, the government spokesman replied: “I would now warn against alarmism.
Elon Musk remains calm
Tesla boss Elon Musk was reportedly calm, even though the factory in Germany is currently shut down. Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) spoke to him on the phone on Tuesday. “Elon Musk was very matter-of-fact and confident in his reaction,” said Steinbach to the “Tagesspiegel” (Wednesday/online). “There was immediate agreement that nothing should happen in response that would have allowed the attackers to succeed.” However, Musk called for solidarity and confidence-building measures to support the company and its employees.
Resistance against the car manufacturer is increasing. In a citizen survey in Grünheide, around two thirds rejected Tesla’s planned expansion to include a freight station and warehouse on an adjacent site. More than 100 hectares of forest are to be cleared there. On Thursday, environmentalists and Tesla critics set up a protest camp with tree houses in the forest near the factory.
Massive damage expected
Plant manager André Thierig is concerned. With regard to the attack, he sees a “very critical underlying mood that may also fuel such behavior to a certain extent.” He said the damage was several hundred million euros. According to information from the German Press Agency, Thierig is referring to the loss of sales of cars that could not be sold. He expects more than 1,000 cars to be down every day.
There’s a lot at stake: around 12,500 people work at Tesla in Grünheide. The car manufacturer is planning to expand the existing plant. The planned production of 500,000 cars per year is expected to increase to one million. Thierig leaves it open whether the plans will last. “I can’t say at this point whether this will have an impact on the further expansion of the factory.”
Industry expert Stefan Bratzel sees a certain danger for production in the German automotive industry after the attack. In addition to the power supply, there are other ways to disrupt production, said the head of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) in Bergisch Gladbach.
Vice Chancellor Habeck condemns Tesla attack
Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) has condemned the attack on the power supply to the Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin. On Wednesday he spoke of a “crime” that needed to be solved. It was “wrong in every way and not acceptable in any way.”
Freedom to demonstrate is a valuable asset. The federal and state governments would have to endure demonstrations. But the political debate in Germany must not slide, said Habeck at Berlin Brandenburg Airport before his departure to the USA. He spoke out against violence against property and endangering people. “I have the feeling that we have now reached a point, and it must not be set incorrectly,” said Habeck, who is also Federal Minister of Economics.
On Tuesday, unknown perpetrators lit a fire on a power pole in a field in Gosen-Neu Zittau near the Tesla factory in Grünheide. Production at the Tesla factory was stopped. The company expects a production downtime of several days. Plant manager André Thierig estimates the damage at hundreds of millions of euros.
Court: Tesla works council election can take place
The works council election at the electric car manufacturer Tesla in Grünheide can now take place as planned in mid-March. This was decided by the Berlin-Brandenburg State Labor Court, as a spokeswoman announced on Wednesday. The election that has already been initiated should not be canceled (ref.: 11 TaBVGa 135/24). Tesla and the electoral board have successfully defended themselves against a decision by the lower court in an expedited procedure. The Frankfurt (Oder) labor court stopped the works council election on February 13th at the request of the IG Metall union.
The court had assumed that there was a procedural error by the election board of the Tesla works council. According to the Frankfurt judges, the election should therefore only be initiated from February 29, 2024. The Berlin lawyers contradicted this. The State Labor Court also assumes a violation of the statutory deadline regulation. However, this does not lead to the election being canceled. The State Labor Court said that this error and other criticized points were not so serious that the election could be assumed to be invalid.
The fact that the election could be contested is not enough to cancel it, it said. After the election, it can still be checked whether there were actually errors and whether an election challenge procedure needs to be initiated.
“In the interests of fairness and legal certainty, we would have liked a restart of the works council elections without unnecessary time pressure,” said IG Metall district manager Dirk Schulze. If the electoral board sticks to the date, there will remain “a high legal risk”. “The metal workers at Tesla in Grünheide are well positioned and ready to make the best of the situation,” Schulze continued. According to him, a list of 106 candidates was drawn up and submitted to the electoral board.
The first election of the incumbent works council took place on February 28, 2022. Elections are now scheduled to take place again from March 18th to 20th. According to its own statements, IG Metall went to court to ensure equal opportunities for all Tesla employees in the election. In the union’s opinion, the electoral board appointed by the current works council unnecessarily created a lot of time pressure in preparing for the election. According to the union, this would have disadvantaged production employees because most of them were not at the factory due to the shutdown at Tesla.
According to the company, around 12,500 people currently work in the factory in Grünheide. The factory opened in March 2022.
Tesla shares fell 2.32 percent to $176.54 in NASDAQ trading.
GRÜNHEIDE / BERLIN (dpa-AFX)