Electric car maker: Three years Tesla: Between confidence and protest

The US electric car maker Tesla is entering a drop in sales in Germany three years after the opening of the factory in Grünheide near Berlin – at the same time, protests against company boss Elon Musk are increasing. Factory manager André Thierg is confident. “We have continuously increased production in recent years and now supply 37 markets inside and outside of Europe directly from the Gigafactory,” said Thiergere of the German Press Agency. “Further markets will be added in the future.” There are currently no plans for HR reduction for Grünheide – 2024 fell away.

The chief of work speaks of a “unique success story”. “As the most modern car factory in Europe, we have been producing the Model Y in Brandenburg since 2022. Since then we have created over 11,000 jobs,” said Thierl. The over -tariff entry content with over 40,000 euros a year is well above the average income of the region. The production has been expanded, Tesla rely on innovative procedures and a recycle sewage treatment plant up to 100 percent of the process tin water.

With a big show in front of hundreds of fans, Tesla boss Musk opens his Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg three years ago, even the chancellor. Tesla is the largest industrial employer in Brandenburg. The opening seems like a fell like today. Not only because Olaf Scholz will soon be no longer a chancellor.

Tesla is slowed down in the approvals of the new cars in Germany. Sales decreased again in February, although more electric cars came on the streets. And with polarization and interference in the election campaign, musk ensures growing protest.

Only third in new registrations in Germany

According to data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, 76.3 percent fewer Teslas in Germany were re-approved in February 1,429 in February. Throughout 2024, the Tesla brand lost the most under the electric cars and slipped from first to third. The Model Y stayed at the top of the newly approved e-models.

“The Model Y was the best -selling car in the world in both 2023 and last year,” said Thierl. The model was established, not just a facelift, as critics say. After a brief interruption of production, the production of the new model Y. “It will of course take some time before we have ran back to our usual production volume,” said the manager. It is natural that there was a short -term gap in the registration figures during the changeover.

Expert: more innovation necessary

Industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer does not expect a rapid end of the drop in sales: “The models exude little innovative new and are too expensive,” says Dudenhöffer of the dpa. Tesla would need more innovations. In his view, the car manufacturer is almost a one-model manufacturer with the model Y. In addition, he sees a negative reason: “Elon Musk has become an unpersons. Then the Tesla brand also suffers.”

Musk publicly campaigned for the AfD in the Bundestag election campaign and had a conversation with AfD boss Alice Weidel on his online platform X. He also took part in an AfD election campaign event by video and criticized before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the extermination camp Auschwitz that Germany “put too much focus on the past”.

Protest against Musk is growing

A large picture of Musk on the facade of the Tesla factory in Grünheide caused excitement in January. It shows the tech billionaire during the swearing-in ceremony of US President Donald Trump with a gesture similar to the Hitler salute.

In February, an arson attack on a railway line in Berlin-Schöneweide caused disorders in rail traffic. Approaches were presumably committed to four Teslas in Berlin in March in March. Around a year ago there was an attack on the power supply of the Tesla plant. Car production was therefore on ice for almost a week. In May, environmental activists tried to storm the Tesla site at protest days.

Environmentalists against Tesla in the water

The opening three years ago was accompanied by violent criticism of environmentalists. They accuse the car manufacturer to endanger water resources and turn against a previously planned expansion of the Tesla site with deforestation of forest for a freight station. Tesla points out that water consumption declined and is lower than in the industry and the freight station relieves the streets. There were allegations of lack of occupational safety, which Tesla rejected.

After almost nine months, a protest camp in the forest near the Tesla factory was dissolved in November. The protest continues. On World Water Day – on the third anniversary of the Tesla opening (March 22nd) – the alliance “Tesla turn off the tap” calls for consistent water pollution by the effective protection of the water from contamination.

The Association for Nature and Landscape in Brandenburg – the citizens’ initiative against Tesla – wants to give a new negative environmental prize “the dirty drops”, which is to go half to the SPD Brandenburg this first year (for the settlement of Tesla in a water protection area) and to Tesla in Grünheide (for alleged threats to the water protection area).

Internally, a conflict with IG Metall smells. According to the union, Tesla often doubts retrospectively ill -effective sick leave of employees in a first step, the “Handelsblatt” wrote. Tesla replies that it is around a dozen cases. Tesla rejects a collective agreement. IG Metall presented Tesla a petition with around 3,000 signatures in Grünheide on Thursday in Grünheide, in which longer breaks, more staff and more respect.

Tesla presented the result of an internal online survey among all around 11,000 employees in which around 7,500 would have participated. Almost 80 percent are satisfied with their workplace, 5 percent would have commented negatively, the rest of the neutral.