Tesla Giga Berlin has been focused on getting production approvals for the factory. While many environmentalists opposed the factory, the main concern was water consumption and air pollution. Friday’s 536-page conditional building permit for Tesla shows that the factory can start production, but not just yet. Once the factory proves the water usage and air pollution control, it can go ahead with the production.
Germany’s largest automaker has the upper hand in Europe, with a 25% share of electric vehicle (EV) sales to Tesla’s 13%. Brandenburg state premier Dietmar Woidke told a news briefing that the development marked “a big step into the future”, adding that the Tesla plant would be a major industrial and technological driver for Germany and the region. It is known that around 2,600 of the plant’s 12,000 workers have been hired so far, unions said last month, and Tesla is in talks with numerous parts suppliers in the region to source as much as possible locally, lowering waiting times and costs.
Underlining the intense competition facing Tesla, Volkswagen said on Friday it would spend about 2 billion euros on a new factory near its Wolfsburg headquarters to make the Trinity, the first of a new generation of electric vehicles for the German carmaker, with construction due to start next year.
Other hurdles
Another issue to secure the site’s water supply emerged late on Friday when a Frankfurt Oder administrative court sided with environmental groups who had challenged a license given to a local water utility to supply the Tesla site. However, the court said the procedural errors made in the licensing decision could be remedied by the water utility, leaving open the door for the water supply arrangement to be salvaged.
Starting the production in Germany would mean Tesla can deliver its Model Y cars to European customers faster and more cheaply, after meeting orders in Europe from its Shanghai factory in recent months as it awaited approval for the site. Tesla plans to show that it meets the imposed conditions within the next two weeks, Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel said, while objections can be filed over the next month. Furthermore, the automaker’s next challenge will be to scale up production as quickly as possible, which Musk said at a fair on-site in October would take longer than building the factory.
The factory, which Tesla has begun constructing under pre-approval permits, will also include a battery plant capable of generating more than 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year – outstripping European competitors.
Credits- Reuters
