Tesla has received approval from German authorities to open its new Gigafactory. The German newspaper reports that Handelsblatt† That means Tesla can probably start production this month. However, there still seems to be resistance to the opening of the factory.
The approval is said to have been granted after months of delay by the Ministry of the Environment of the state of Brandenburg. According to the newspaper, Prime Minister Dietmar Woike of the state will hold a press conference on Friday about the opening of the factory. In 2019, Tesla began construction on the facility based on a preliminary approval. Production should have started last year, but local authorities took their time assessing the plant’s environmental impact, with particular concerns over water consumption. Last month, the ministry said it “could take a while” before the decision was made, but that seems to have already happened.
Tesla is now expected to start production soon at the new factory in Grünheide, near Berlin. The approval is essential for Tesla to further increase production and to continue to challenge the German car groups Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Tesla’s new production base should eventually be good for a production capacity of 500,000 cars per year.
Objections
Despite the approval, there is still resistance to the opening of the plant. Environmental organizations Nabu and Grüne Liga sued the authorities of the state of Brandenburg because the effect of the groundwater use of the Tesla factory on climate change was not included in the granting of the environmental permit. Authorities say the groundwater problem is manageable, but experts say the current reserves are not enough to supply the plant and residents with water.
The first day of that lawsuit is tomorrow, the exact same day Woike is reportedly announcing its approval. This lawsuit is therefore not expected to prevent Tesla from having cars roll off the production line in the short term.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl