BERLIN (Reuters) – Tesla will suspend production at its Gruenheide plant near Berlin on Friday, the EV maker confirmed on Tuesday following a newspaper report that said the company was shutting down the factory for four days.
There will be a “one day planned production shutdown” at the plant on May 10, the factory’s manager, André Thierig, said on social media X, formerly Twitter.
No production activity is carried out at the factory on weekends and Thursday is a public holiday in Germany.
Earlier in the day, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the electric car manufacturer would shut down production at its German plant for four days due to protests against its expansion plans.
Tesla has asked all employees who work at the plant to work from home on Friday, according to an email, seen by Handelsblatt, that the company sent staffers on Monday.
Production will end with the late shift on Wednesday this week and begin again with the night shift on Sunday, Handelsblatt reported.
Access to the factory will only be possible with manager approval, it added.
Tesla’s ambitions to expand its German plant hit a roadblock in February when citizens voted against a motion to raze trees and make way for a larger site.
Activists have announced several protests against Tesla’s expansion for the coming week, including a rally in front of the factory gates on Friday.
Tesla’s sales in the European Union fell 5% in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier, lagging the battery EV market’s 4% growth during the period, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez, Christoph Steitz and Juby Babu; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Peter Graff and Pooja Desai)
