Tesla seems to be in the news again for the wrong reasons, but this time the electric automaker isn’t doing anything, nor is any of its vehicles. German environmentalists have been protesting the automaker’s excessive water consumption and deforestation at the Giga Berlin plant, vandalizing one of the car brand’s showrooms in central Berlin, Teslarati reported.
Since the launch of the Tesla Giga Berlin project, the automaker has faced several challenges. Sometimes it comes in the form of regulatory issues, and other times, the automaker has faced protests from environmental activists for allegedly using staggering amounts of groundwater and destroying forests. In a recent incident of vandalizing a showroom, protesters reportedly dropped paint bombs on the store’s exterior and plastered posters with anti-Tesla messages on the store’s walls.
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A poster on the showroom wall reads: “Drive for a Dead Planet”. It’s a mockery of the environmental cost of producing a lithium-ion battery electric vehicle that emits no pollutants into the environment. Protesters reportedly demanded more funding for public transport. Protesters called on the German government to provide well-developed and free public transport for everyone in the country’s capital and Brandenburg, instead of supporting Tesla’s production of electric cars there, the report said.
Tesla Giga Berlin is the US-based electric carmaker’s only production facility in Europe. It currently produces the Tesla Model Y crossover, one of the world’s most popular electric vehicles, alongside the Tesla Model 3. Giga Berlin has been operating since last March and is currently rolling out more than 4,000 Model Y electric crossovers per week. The factory claims to use energy from solar and windmills.
Speaking of groundwater consumption, when Giga Berlin’s production doubles, the automaker reportedly won’t need additional water, as it claims to use the same amount of water it currently consumes to produce 1 million electric vehicles a year .
First published date: March 26, 2023 at 09:34 AM CST
https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto/electric-vehicles/environment-activists-vandalize-tesla-store-in-germany-here-s-why-41679800899624.html