Without a Tesla factory, Germany as a car location can pack up

analysis

Tesla and Germany as a car country – that is still a complicated relationship. When Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited the leaders of the domestic auto industry to the auto summit in the Chancellery last year, he initially completely forgot about Tesla. The US electric car company is already one of the largest car manufacturers in the country.

If Tesla leader Elon Musk implements the previously requested expansion of his factory in Grünheide near Berlin, he will even be the largest car producer in Germany: One million vehicles can then be manufactured in Grünheide per year – for comparison: the VW main plant in Wolfsburg was the last to do so around 400,000 pieces. The Chancellery then realized its mistake and allowed Musk’s plant manager André Thierig from Grünheide to join in.

But Tesla’s expansion plans received a serious setback this week. The citizens of the community of Grünheide voted against expanding the plant. The referendum was indeed non-binding. Formally, it was not about the major expansion with the doubling of capacity to one million cars, for which an approval process is currently underway – but only about space for a freight station, which is intended to simplify deliveries, as well as for storage and social buildings. To achieve this, more than 100 hectares of forest will be cleared.

Tesla didn’t even react angrily to the rejection, but rather with a decidedly understanding tone: The company sees the citizens’ concerns and will coordinate the next steps with those involved “based on the feedback from the last few weeks.” At first it doesn’t sound as if the citizens’ vote is leading Americans to think about withdrawing. But Grünheide’s decision makes some Brandenburg politicians nervous.

One should not scare Tesla away, Brandenburg’s State Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) had warned in recent weeks. It probably won’t be easy to keep Musk and his company in line by continuing to roll out the red carpet for them. After all, state and local elections are coming up in Brandenburg, so politicians and administration can hardly afford to simply ignore a clearly negative citizen vote in the ongoing proceedings. Accordingly, Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) appealed to Tesla to take the citizens’ will seriously.

Suppliers like ZF and Conti depend on the Tesla factory

Tesla in Grünheide is one of the few success stories in the German auto industry in recent years. The settlement in the industrially poor east of the country was already perceived as a signal. While some of the established car factories in the Volkswagen Group are working short-time and temporary employment contracts have been terminated, 11,500 industrial jobs have already been created on the outskirts of Berlin.

The Ford Group will stop producing cars in Saarlouis next year. In this context, the signal from Grünheide was long: something was being rebuilt and ambitiously expanded – even in the future business with electric cars. The Tesla Model Y, manufactured in Grünheide, is now the best-selling car in Europe and the world. Numerous German suppliers work for Tesla, including large corporations such as ZF, Conti and Bosch, but also more than three dozen medium-sized companies.

Of course, the Tesla workers in Grünheide don’t earn as well as their colleagues at VW or Opel, also because Musk’s people have tried to keep the IG Metall union out of it so far. Sure, there are , . Tesla’s lack of transparency and the company’s sometimes quite ignorant behavior towards the German public is inappropriate and may have contributed to the negative vote.

Nevertheless, without the Tesla factory, the decline of Germany as a car location would be likely. With a view to the dawn of the electric age, domestic manufacturers alone are hardly able to keep anywhere near as many employees and suppliers – and thus additional jobs – in work as was the case in the past. People who find it economically important that Germany is a car country have to be grateful to Elon Musk; just like all those who are interested in climate-friendly mobility – despite all the compromises and despite all the character problems of the Tesla driver.

Musk wants to build a new Tesla model in Brandenburg

Tesla-Zampano himself was in Grünheide for the last time in November. During his short trip, he announced that he wanted to locate the group’s most important future project in Grünheide: The new entry-level Tesla, which could be available for 25,000 euros from 2026, will also be produced in Germany, Musk told employees.

Tesla has big plans for the car; he wants to push his group into new dimensions in terms of volume and at the same time revolutionize car manufacturing. Then the capacity of the plant would probably double again, to two million vehicles, for which there are also options in the plans.

Of course, Musk’s announcements are always huge and should always be viewed with caution. But if he succeeds in implementing his plans, then the plant near Berlin will become even more important for car manufacturing in Germany. If the country wants to remain a car country, it will probably need this plant.