The first deliveries of cars built at Tesla’s factory in Germany could take place this year, with production beginning in “November or December”, according to company boss Elon Musk.
The plant was announced late in 2019 as part of a reported €5 billion (£4.25bn) investment plan. Construction is nearly complete, although it's still waiting for final approval from German authorities, having faced significant local opposition.
If given the green light as expected, the so-called gigafactory will have the ability to produce up to 50GWh worth of battery cells annually. Musk believes this capacity will be reached by the end of 2022.
The site will also accommodate production of the long-awaited Model Y crossover, which is set to arrive in the UK next year, almost two years after the first deliveries were made in the US.
“But starting production is kind of the easy part; the hard part is reaching volume production,” warned Musk, speaking at a festival held on the factory grounds over the weekend.
He estimated that the German factory could eventually produce between 5000 and 10,000 vehicles per week, and the Tesla Semi truck is also thought to be part of plans for the new facility.
The UK had been in the running to get Tesla’s first European factory, but it eventually lost out to the Brandenburg site on the outskirts of Berlin.
It’s set to create “12,000 jobs, maybe more”, according to Musk, who added: "I’m a little worried we won't be able to hire enough people, so we really need great talent to come here from all around Europe.”
Since missing out on Tesla’s European move, numerous firms have shown an interest in establishing EV battery production facilities in the UK, most notably Britishvolt, which agreed a cobalt supply deal with Glencore in August.
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What idiot replied because of Brexit?
I know you remoaners prefer to ignore any news outside our borders but just in case you missed it, only last month the EU finally gave permission for Tesla to receive state aid from the German taxpayer. Yes all you people who think it's only the UK gov who attracts investment by using taxpayers money, read on...
The German taxpayer is giving Tesla a reported 1 billion Euro, yes you read that right, one billion !!! Go read it for yourselves folks. Environmentalists? Opposition? Locals not happy? None of that matters when those sorts of monies are involved.
If we'd paid Musk almost a billion pounds, the remoaners would have been up in arms saying he only came here for the money. Brexit had sod all to do with it, the highest bidder won.
Remoaners ignorance is breathtaking at times. They damn the UK if it does and damn if it doesn't.
"The UK subsidies were worth €5.7bn (£5.2bn) to company car owners in 2019, according to the study by analysts Dataforce"
Idiot! Ignorant and full of conceit, like all brexitards. You can't even get your facts right.
The company has been in talks with the UK government over financial support for further investment in the factory on the Wirral in north-west England, which has been considered in jeopardy since the Brexit vote."
Exactly. Germany has broken EU State Aid rules on 68 occasions in the last 21 years. EU Luvvies never mention that plenty of EU Members break EU State Aid rules and say nothing meanwhile when the UK decides to subsidise investment they kick up about it.
Why on Earth did Musk go to Germany to build a factory? The country is stiffled by red tape and regulations, he's built a factory that he still hasn't got permissuion for and is going to pay his workers 20% less than the unions are asking for! He's faced huge criticism by the locals for chopping down a forest to make way for his Gigaplant & using most of their water supplies. He could have had it dead easy and just take over the abandoned Honda factory in Swindon. He is paying the ultimate price to have the "Made in Germany" label. I think the Guy is insane. He'll also end up selling most of his production in the UK since Germans will not view his product as German.
I'm sorry, this is going to upset a few Musk fans, but, he sounds , reads a bit Trump like, always positive,but not really convincing.