According to "The Wall Street Journal," the American manufacturer plans to "halt" construction of its first European battery "gigafactory," which is located in Grünheide. Authorities in this area are aware that Tesla may be able to "reset" the priorities it has established for itself.
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| [Tesla Gigafactory Berlin] |
The toll that Tesla has taken on German logic is not yet complete. Tesla would now throw doubt on the expansion of its manufacturing in Grünheide, which is close to Berlin, after placing pressure on the local authorities to secure its construction permission in less than two years.
According to sources interviewed by the "Wall Street Journal" in the United States, the American manufacturer may decide to shelve its intention to produce its own battery cells on site. It is now being considered to manufacture batteries in the United States in order to take advantage of the public assistance that has been established by Joe Biden, who has placed billions of dollars on the table in order to attract the electric vehicle industry to his nation.
Tesla has not issued a statement about the information. On the other hand, a spokesperson for the Brandenburg region has confirmed that "today the first information on this issue" was sent to the regional minister of the economy. She said that while it is likely that Tesla would reprioritize various phases of the process in the plants, the Grünheide facility will be kept in its current state along with its employment. She points out that it is a known truth that the legislation in the United States "leads to a competitive disadvantage in Europe."
Workers are still hard at work inside of a massive concrete structure in Grünheide. Initially, Tesla's plans called for the facility to be used as a warehouse; however, the company subsequently revealed that it will utilize the building as a battery plant instead. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, then dangled the benefits of a project with 2,000 jobs at stake, despite the reluctance of a portion of the population with regard to water-intensive production in a region that has lacked it for several summers. He did this in spite of the fact that the region has been water-deprived for several summers.
Elon Musk referred to the Grünheide facility as a "gigantic money furnace" when he made the announcement in June that the company would be cutting its employees globally by 10%. In spite of this, Tesla managed to catch everyone off guard when, in November of last year, the company announced that it would not accept a potential public aid grant of more than 1.1 billion euros for the production of batteries, as part of an overall investment that is estimated to be worth 5 billion euros. The business therefore made certain that "its plans for a battery and recycling facility" would continue to be implemented at its factory in "Berlin-Brandenburg."
Since it opened for business on March 22, the Grünheide automobile plant and its 3,000 workers have hit their stride, which has allowed them to make significant progress. According to the most recent data that the company has published, by the end of the second half of 2022, it was manufacturing 1,000 Model Y cars each week "due to a considerable increase in productivity." This information was supplied by the firm. This is still a very long way from the 500,000 yearly cars that Tesla has claimed it would produce, which would be equivalent to producing 10,000 vehicles per week.
In addition, work is underway surrounding the facility to modify the rail network and the nearby freight terminal at the cost of the automobile manufacturer. A portion of the reorganizations that were not necessary authorized for in the first construction permit would be tied to the change of gear that the manufacturer would be implementing. Because of issues with the delivery chain, the "just-in-time" policy has been modified, which requires an increase in storage capacity.
German companies' rivals are placing a greater emphasis on domestic battery production as a result of the construction of factories such as those carried out by the Norwegian Northvolt in Schleswig-Holstein, the Chinese CATL and SVolt in Saarland and Brandenburg, and the one carried out by Volkswagen in Salzgitter.