Electric Vehicle | Tesla German Plant Gets Green Light for First Stage Expansion

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Electric Vehicle | Tesla German Plant Gets Green Light for First Stage Expansion

Date：2024-10-16

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Keyword tags： EV LiB Europe Tesla

Tesla's Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg has taken a significant step towards doubling its production capacity with the approval of the first phase of its expansion plan by the Brandenburg State authorities.

On Tuesday, the local environment ministry in Potsdam, Brandenburg, announced that the state's environmental agency had granted preliminary environmental authorization for Tesla to construct an additional large workshop to increase production capacity. The company will also make changes and optimizations to existing facilities. This government approval allows Tesla to proceed with the first of three expansion stages, including the construction of infrastructure for storage facilities, a battery cell test laboratory, and logistics areas. The ministry stated that all approved construction projects will take place on the existing land already owned by the company without further forest felling.

Since its operation began in 2022, Tesla's German factory has aimed to increase its annual production capacity from 500,000 vehicles to 1 million, to become the largest car factory in Germany, and it is also planning to build a battery production capacity of 100 GWh.

Tesla submitted its factory expansion project for approval in July 2023, stating in the application that the first phase of the expansion plan would be implemented in the first half of 2024. However, since February of this year, the expansion project has faced obstruction from some radical environmental activists who also worry about the factory's water consumption threatening local water supply. In March, a suspected arson attack near the factory caused a power outage that led to a one-week production halt at Tesla. In early May, protests escalated when activists attempted to break into Tesla's factory, resulting in clashes with the police and riots. Stellantis's Canadian battery factory project also faced attacks from radical environmental activists in February.

Andre Thierig, the head of Tesla's German factory, told the media in August that due to the weakening demand in the electric vehicle market, Tesla's investments might not be as urgent. Tesla may wait until market demand rises before making large-scale expansion investments.

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