The fifth large Tesla factory worldwide was built in a record time of just two years.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Tesla mission starts this Tuesday on the outskirts of Berlin: The first European factory of the US electric car manufacturer in Grünheide will be opened with many celebrities.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck, Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke and Tesla boss Elon Musk have announced that they will celebrate. The tech pioneer wants to personally hand over the first Model Y vehicles to owners. Musk said on Twitter on Monday evening: “We are delighted to hand over the first production vehicles from Giga Berlin-Brandenburg!”
With the factory, after only two years of construction and many preliminary approvals until the final approval at the beginning of March, a new automotive location was created in eastern Germany. The project is regarded as a model – also in terms of construction and approval times.
Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said: “The pace at Tesla must serve as a model for investment projects in Germany.”
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The Federal Ministry of Transport confirmed the plans of the traffic light coalition to halve the duration of planning and approval procedures. The Greens economic politician Dieter Janecek emphasized: “A significant simplification of approval and planning procedures is absolutely urgent.”
The Vice President of the SPD Economic Forum, Matthias Machnig, warned that the revision of the previous planning and approval law should not only have a “cosmetic character”. “The right must become an enabling right.”
Praise for the government in Brandenburg
The applicable licensing law is not without its pitfalls. For example, Tesla originally wanted to have the first cars roll off the assembly line in Grünheide last summer. But the approval process was delayed, partly because Tesla added a battery factory to the building application. The state of Brandenburg finally approved the project on March 4th. The car factory is already there, built at your own risk over almost 20 early registrations.
BDI President Russwurm called on the federal government to start a “massive acceleration” of the approval process by Easter. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) announced “presentable results” in the first half of the year after a cabinet meeting in January.
>> Read also: Record speed despite setbacks – How Tesla and Brandenburg outsmarted the bureaucracy
Russwurm also explained the need for action with the current discussion about reducing energy imports from Russia. Because of the urgently needed faster conversion of the energy supply in Germany, there will be a “huge approval marathon” for infrastructure and industrial projects. “The federal and state governments must achieve much more speed than before in planning and approvals to ensure security of supply and the desired independence from Russian energy supplies,” warned the BDI President.
In this context, Russwurm praised the intensive support of the Brandenburg state government for the Tesla settlement. This has “considerably” accelerated the approval process. “German industrial companies would like this kind of support for every approval process in all federal states.”
Tesla starts with 3000 employees
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) explained: “We have proven that even with a somewhat complicated German approval law, such a large investment can be realized within little more than two years.”
A total of 30 cars are to be handed over to the first German customers today. The Model Y Performance is thus celebrating its German and European premiere.
The Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg is the fifth major Tesla location worldwide, alongside the production facility in Fremont, California, and the gigafactories in Reno (Nevada), Buffalo (New York) and Shanghai (China). After the announcement in November 2019, construction of the factory started as early as spring 2020. Just about two years later, the factory was officially approved and has started production of the Model Y all-electric compact SUV.
In a first step, Tesla is planning up to 500,000 cars a year. According to the company, at full capacity, up to 12,000 employees will produce cars, battery cells, batteries, electric motors, plastic parts, seats and axles, among other things.
More than 3000 employees have already started work in the factory. Thousands more employees are to be hired in the coming months.
More: Tesla and Brandenburg – How a tweet became the most important industrial project in East Germany