Tesla’s European Gigafactory in Greenheide, Germany, welcomed the visit of CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday. Last week, an arson attack hit a transmission tower near the plant, causing the plant to lose power and shut down production. A week after the incident, the factory has resumed operations, and Elon Musk also came to inspect it.
Elon Musk showed up at the German factory wearing a black T-shirt with the words “We are the future (Giga)” printed on it. When he left, he shouted: “Hey, Germany is great! Keep up the good work for Berlin’s victory!”
Far-left activists admitted to carrying out the arson attack. After the incident, the Tesla factory in the suburbs of Berlin was reconnected to the power grid on Monday afternoon. The attack, which occurred southeast of the German capital, caused a fire in a transmission tower close to the factory, but the fire did not spread to the Tesla factory, Tesla’s first production site in Europe.
Tesla said losses due to production disruptions were expected to reach hundreds of millions of euros.
Union council president Michaela Schmitz told local radio station rbb earlier in the day that Elon Musk would hold talks with factory teams. She said that after a week of shutdown, the factory has resumed production and “machines have been restarted in a safe and controlled manner so that workers on the morning shift can resume work.”
Elon Musk did not disclose his specific itinerary in Germany, but local media speculated that he may meet with political leaders in the state of Brandenburg.
