By David Sachs


Activists clashed with police outside a Tesla electric-car plant near Berlin in the latest chapter of protests against the factory's expansion.

Police made arrests and injuries occurred as protesters attempted to storm the plant in Gruenheide, Brandenburg on Friday, news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

The electric-car maker's chief executive, Elon Musk, responded to a video posted on his social media platform, X, showing protesters running toward the plant. "Why do the police let the left-wing protestors off so easily?" he tweeted.

Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment.

"Today activists resisted against the extension of the Tesla factory in a creative and disobedient protest," a spokesperson for Disrupt Tesla, the group orchestrating the action, said.

After nearly two-thirds of Gruenheide's residents voted against Tesla's application in February for an expansion of the factory, activists began camping nearby and protesting the development, which would cut into woodlands in the area.

In March, a group calling itself Vulkangruppe, or the Volcano Group, claimed responsibility for setting fire to an electricity pylon that cut power to the plant and sent Tesla workers home.


Write to David Sachs at david.sachs@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-10-24 1300ET