Approval in Grunheide: Tesla’s factory may start in March

Grunheide. acceptance in
Tesla’s factory will be able to start in March

02/28/2022 10:43 am

Tesla’s car factory tapes are already running on a trial basis, but pending approvals are repeatedly delaying the start of production. The US electric carmaker seems to have cleared these hurdles – according to a report, Tesla should receive final approval in a few days.

Final approval for the Tesla factory in Gruenheide, Brandenburg, is scheduled for this week. This is reported by Berlin “Tagspiegel”. This will pave the way for the official start of production. As the newspaper also reports, preparations are already underway for the opening ceremony at the site of the newly built car factory in March. But the legal dispute for Tesla boss Elon Musk with environmental organizations and residents is yet to be settled.

However, with the final approval, the last significant hurdle to the start of production would have been removed, so that the US electric carmaker – as Musk announced to customers – could deliver the first vehicles of the Y series in March. The approximately 2,500 workers who have been hired by the American company at the Brandenburg site are already producing the vehicles on a trial basis.

According to the report, the State Chancellor of the SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Vodke will have an official handover of the decision to Tesla. Accordingly, a date should be set in advance for the celebration: 22 or 23 March at the plant in Grünheide. For this musk should also fly. The newspaper relies on information from the Brandenburg Police, which will secure the incident. Prominent representatives of politics and business are also expected, such as Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the SPD and Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck. As part of the celebration, the first 30 vehicles produced in Grunheide will also be handed over to the customers.

Legal dispute still open regarding water supply

With a start in March 2022, Tesla is well behind schedule: Musk had originally planned for the first vehicles to be completed in Grunheide by June 2021 – building at a record pace. On the one hand, delays are caused by high requirements, high environmental and participatory standards, and a complex approval process with complaints from environmental organizations.

The US electric car maker, on the other hand, bumped its way when it expanded the application for an electric car factory to include a battery cell factory in the ongoing process. This has necessitated a further public reinterpretation of plans for the site, which is partly within a water conservation area and near a nature reserve.

Employees call for work council election

The dispute regarding water supply to the plant has been going on since the beginning of the project. Environmental groups and residents fear negative consequences Due to high water consumption and filed suit. The hearing has been adjourned several times and is now scheduled for 4 March at the Administrative Court in Frankfurt (Oder). The question is whether the state environment agency’s approval in 2020 for the high flow rate of the Eggersdorf waterworks, from which the Straussberg-Erkner Water Association (WSE) also wants to supply the new Tesla factory, is illegal.

According to information received from IG Metal, about 500,000 vehicles are to be manufactured every year at the plant. The company has plans to create up to 12,000 jobs. Today in Grünheide the new factory workers are asked to elect a works council.