Tesla’s Giga Berlin is set to resume production on Wednesday, after a power outage caused by an arson attack forced the evacuation and closure of the factory for one week.
Giga Berlin, which plays a crucial role in Tesla’s European operations, was subject to an arson attack last week, leading to a power blackout not only for the Gigafactory but also affected the surrounding municipalities. Despite the severity of the damage caused by the attack, the local energy supplier, E.dis, managed to restore power by Monday night.
UPDATE: Grid operator E.DIS said power has been restored to Giga Berlin, much earlier than originally planned.
— Drive Tesla 🇨🇦 (@DriveTeslaca) March 11, 2024
Tesla has not yet commented on when production will be able to resume. https://t.co/cjm7nsYNlG
This was well ahead of the original schedule, which expected the factory to be without power until the end of this week. According to a report by Handelsblatt, this will also Tesla to restart full production on Wednesday.
The lengthy shutdown was expected to have a significant financial impact, with estimates that it would cost the automaker close to $1 billion. However, thanks to the efforts of the local electricity provider restoring power earlier than anticipated, the shutdown is now projected to cost Tesla less than half that amount, around $430 million.
The restart of production will happen on the same day CEO Elon Musk is expected to visit the factory. As we reported earlier today, Musk is expected to arrive in Germany on Wednesday morning, where he will head straight to Giga Berlin for an update on operations at the Gigafactory. Musk is also expected to meet with Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke and Brandenburg Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach.
While power has been restored and the factory is about to resume production, the investigation into the incident is ongoing. Due to the potential involvement of a terrorist group, the investigation is being led by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany.
