The announcement was already seen as a sensation: Tesla wants to open a car factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, it was said in 2019. A self-proclaimed Gigafactory on the outskirts of Berlin – according to the company, the “most modern, sustainable and efficient” Tesla factory.
The project was controversial from the start, also because the plant’s land use is enormous: almost 200 hectares of forest were cleared to make space for the halls. But critics were primarily concerned about the water consumption of the car factory in a water protection area and the way the resource was used – not without reason, as research by the star from the beginning of the year.
Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide built in record time
And yet: After a record-breakingly short approval process, construction of the huge factory began in February 2020. The factory was opened on March 22, 2022 in the presence of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Federal Minister of Economics and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD). Big train station for Tesla boss Elon Musk.
At the beginning of 2022, the first Tesla Y car rolled off the assembly line in Grünheide, and the Model 3 was also to be produced in Brandenburg, as were battery cells for the electric cars. Tesla promised up to 40,000 jobs in southeast Berlin.
The plant is a long way from that, around a year and a half after opening. But more than 10,000 people now work there, and around 5,000 cars have now left the factory every week.
Criticism of the factory has become quieter, but it hasn’t disappeared yet. The new revelations are likely to make it louder again.
See impressions of and around Tesla’s car factory in Grünheide in the photo series above.
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More about Tesla: This Thursday at 10:35 p.m. the new television magazine “stern Investigativ.” starts on RTL, which you can then also access on RTL+. On the same evening, stern presents the serial “stern Investigative.” podcast for the first time – on RTL+ and stern.de as well as everywhere where podcasts are available
Source: Stern
