(The March 8 story has been corrected to change weekly production capacity to 6,000 vehicles in paragraph 7)
Oliver Bart
GRUNHEIDE, Germany (Reuters) – Tesla’s (NASDAQ:) German plant near Berlin will resume operations next week, the head of its works council said on Friday, after a power outage halted production.
Tesla’s electric vehicle (EV) plant has been closed since March 5 following a fire on a nearby power pole, which police are investigating as arson.
German police said they believed the letter from the far-left Volcano Group, which claimed responsibility for the fire, was genuine.
“We will restart the plant next week,” Michaela Schmitz told a gathering of several hundred workers at the electric vehicle (EV) site known as the Gigafactory.
Some held a banner with the inscription: “We will not be closed!”
“Along with many chapters of outstanding achievements, this attack will go down as a dark chapter in our history. But that won’t stop us,” Schmitz said.
The attack left the plant’s 12,500 employees in limbo, meaning the U.S. electric vehicle maker is unable to produce about 6,000 vehicles a week, leading to losses expected to be at least several hundred million Euro.
Tesla’s Grünheide plant has been the target of criticism for years from some local residents and activists concerned about its environmental impact.
Schmitz said Tesla employees would receive information about the restart soon, but did not provide any details about a possible timeline for the restart.
“Colleagues were doomed to sit at home instead of successfully contributing to the energy transition together,” Schmitz added.
Tesla previously said the plant could be without power until the end of next week.
Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said Friday it had taken over the arson investigation, investigating charges of terrorism and “unconstitutional sabotage.”