About a year ago, car manufacturer Tesla applied to expand its factory. The state of Brandenburg has now made a decision on the matter.
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla is allowed to expand its only car factory in Europe in order to increase production capacity. The Brandenburg State Office for the Environment gave the green light for this, according to the Ministry of the Environment. This means that Tesla can start the first construction work in Grünheide near Berlin ahead of schedule.
This involves expanding production on the existing factory site without clearing forest, not the planned expansion of the site to build a freight station, which has been accompanied by protests. Tesla wants to double the planned production of 500,000 cars in Grünheide near Berlin to one million cars a year; the most recent estimate was around 300,000 cars.
Elon Musk’s US company has been producing electric cars at the plant in Brandenburg since March 2022. Around 12,000 employees work there. Tesla’s planned global job cuts in light of the slump in the electric car market also affect hundreds of jobs at the factory in Grünheide. The company announced in April that it would cut 400 jobs at the plant. Tesla nevertheless plans to ramp up production there in the future.
Environmental groups are skeptical
Environmentalists and residents have serious concerns about the expansion of production and the extension because the plant is partly located in a water protection area. The car manufacturer wants to build another large hall and optimize existing production facilities. The capacity of battery storage production is also to increase.
According to the ministry, the early start of construction will initially involve a logistics area for new cars, including underground lines and the construction of staircases at the press shop and solar systems on roofs. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) supports the planned expansion. In March, previously unknown perpetrators carried out an attack on Tesla’s power supply.
Protests against Tesla have been going on for months
This year, protests against Tesla increased. Since the end of February, environmental activists have been camping in the forest near the factory site. They are protesting against a planned expansion of the factory site to build a freight station and logistics areas. Forest is to be cleared for this purpose. Due to a negative vote by citizens, the development plan was recently changed so that less forest would have to be cleared. In May, environmental activists tried to storm the Tesla site during protest days. There were riots and clashes with the police.
Source: Stern
