Approval for Tesla
Gigafactory should be able to start in March
02/28/2022 10:43 am
The tapes of Tesla’s Gigafactory are already rolling out for testing purposes, but pending approvals keep delaying the start of production. The US electric car manufacturer seems to have cleared these hurdles – according to a report, Tesla should have final approval in a few days.
The final approval for the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, is scheduled for this week. This is reported by the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”. This would pave the way for the official start of production. As the newspaper also reports, preparations for the opening ceremony in March on the site of the newly built car factory are already underway. But a legal dispute with environmental organizations and residents has not yet been settled for Tesla boss Elon Musk.
With the final approval, however, the last crucial hurdle for the start of production would have been cleared, so that the US electric car manufacturer – as Musk had announced to customers – can deliver the first vehicles of the Y series in March. The approximately 2,500 employees who have been hired by the US company at the Brandenburg site are already producing vehicles on a test basis.
According to the report, there will probably be an official handover of the decision to Tesla in the State Chancellery of Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke of the SPD. Accordingly, a date should already be set for the celebration: on March 22nd or 23rd at the plant in Grünheide. Musk should also fly in for this. The newspaper relies on information from the Brandenburg police, which will secure the event. Prominent representatives from politics and business are also expected, such as Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the SPD and the Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck. As part of the celebration, the first 30 vehicles produced in Grünheide will also be handed over to customers.
Legal dispute over water supply still open
With the start in March 2022, Tesla is well behind schedule: Musk had originally planned for the first vehicles to be completed in Grünheide from June 2021 – construction at record speed. On the one hand, the delays are due to the complicated approval process with high requirements, high environmental and participation standards, and complaints by environmental organizations.
On the other hand, the US electric car manufacturer had put obstacles in its own way when it expanded the application for the electric car factory to include a battery cell factory in the ongoing process. This has necessitated another public reinterpretation of the plans for the site, which is partly in a water protection area and close to a nature reserve.
Employees called for works council elections
The dispute over the water supply to the plant has accompanied the project from the start. Environmental groups and local residents fear negative consequences due to the high water consumption and have filed a lawsuit. The hearing has been postponed several times and is now scheduled for March 4th at the Administrative Court in Frankfurt (Oder). The question is whether the approvals granted by the State Environment Agency in 2020 for higher flow rates of the Eggersdorf waterworks, from which the Strausberg-Erkner Water Association (WSE) also wants to supply the new Tesla factory, are illegal.
According to information from IG Metall, around 500,000 vehicles are to be built in the plant each year. Up to 12,000 jobs are planned in the company. Today the workforce of the new Gigafactory in Grünheide is called upon to elect a works council.