“A total workaholic”: Minister gets enthusiastic about Elon Musk

“A Total Workaholic”
Minister raves about Elon Musk

He doesn’t know “when the man will sleep and do it all,” says Brandenburg’s Economics Minister Steinbach about Elon Musk. The Tesla boss inspires enthusiasm with his work ethic. But despite all the affection, there is also criticism of the entrepreneur.

The Economics Minister of Brandenburg, Jörg Steinbach, is very impressed by Tesla boss Elon Musk. When Musk is at the construction site for the future Tesla factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, he talks to his teams in one of the construction containers. “Everything is plastered with technical drawings,” Steinbach told the “Handelsblatt”. Musk is “very interested in detail and a total workaholic”.

He does not know “when the man sleeps and does everything,” said the SPD politician. Before that he had “quite a lot of respect”. His talks with Musk weren’t just about the construction site, the minister reported. “You also have a private component when Elon Musk shows me a picture of his youngest son and I show him a picture of my first granddaughter and we then share experiences.”

Sometimes the talks were “pretty technical”. “We both have a lot of fun talking shop with each other,” said Steinbach. “At one meeting, we delved deep into battery technology.” Steinbach has a doctorate in chemical engineering, Musk studied physics.

However, Steinbach was critical of Musk’s handling of concerns about water consumption at the Tesla factory. The Tesla boss had made a joke about this. “That wasn’t very helpful,” Steinbach said. “You don’t make the situation in the region easier by laughing away concerns.” Tesla is building a so-called giga factory in Grünheide, south-east of Berlin, in which not only cars but also the associated battery cells are to be built. The group has built large parts of its plant with preliminary permits; the final approval is still pending.

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