Tesla has been working on a ‘Gigafactory’ in Germany since 2019, but does not encounter a delay for the first time. Now the factory would not become operational this summer, but only at the end of this year.
Slightly southeast of Berlin, a gigantic building has now arisen where Tesla will house car production, mainly for the European market. Although it now looks from the outside as if a new Tesla could roll out at any moment, the factory near Grünheide is not yet operational. Various German media report this, including Der Tagesspiegel. The plan was to start car production at the beginning of this summer, which has now been postponed to October at least.
In extreme cases, production cannot even start until the new year. The stumbling block this time is a paper issue. Tesla has not yet received the green light from the local authorities and the granting of a permit seems to depend mainly on the water management of the factory. That would now have been set up quite differently than originally planned and the government agencies involved will have to consider this for a while.
Earlier hurdles that were overcome mainly had to do with the environment. The factory is located in a relatively remote area with many forests around it. Construction was on several occasions endangered or temporarily halted due to possible disturbance to the fauna in the area. Local residents also complained about the environmental impact, which also led to legal action. Tesla won the prize and could continue construction. Now we just have to wait a little longer.
Tesla will build the European Model Y in Grünheide, but also the Model 3 and possibly a new smaller model. According to the latest rumors, the latter could be a compact SUV for which Tesla is working with Toyota, although that is still far from official.