A year of Tesla production in Grünheide: That happened in 12 months

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• The Gigafactory in Grünheide was opened in March 2022
• Tesla continues to face environmental concerns
• In Grünheide, 5,000 cars per week are produced for the first time

construction and opening

The Gigafactory in Grünheide was announced by Musk in November 2019 and officially opened on March 22, 2022 after a construction phase lasting about two years. This makes the plant near Berlin the first and currently the only Tesla plant in Europe. Construction previously began in the first quarter of 2020. The opening was originally planned for July 2021, as InsideEVs reports, but construction took longer than originally planned due to the complicated approval process with public participation and various court hearings. A total of 20 partial permits were required over the entire construction phase to complete the new factory. Around 500 guests were invited to the opening ceremony, including the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens), Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In his opinion, the East will benefit from the Gigafactory: “Industrial terms, the East is at the forefront,” InsideEVs quoted the SPD politician as saying. Handed over the first 30 Model Y produced in the Gigafactory Elon Musk even personally to the customers.

environmental concerns

But apart from bureaucratic hurdles, Tesla also had to face many critics when building the new plant. The biggest concerns were and continue to be environmental protection. The water supply for the plant was the main concern, mainly due to concerns about the supply of drinking water in the region. At the time, the Grünheide citizens’ initiative stated that concerns and objections had been ignored in the proceedings and that the law had been perverted. Tesla electric cars weighing tons are “anything but climate-friendly” in terms of production, use and disposal. Further environmental concerns were raised when Tesla ordered the clearing of as much as 70 hectares of pine forest in the fall of 2022 to expand the plant. However, the necessary approval for the clearing was available and all the necessary forest and species protection measures had been implemented. The association for nature and landscape criticized the clearing: “Tesla does not control the current production. There are always disruptions in the operational process that pose a danger to people and the environment.” Several fires were also reported. The clearing to start construction of the factory had already been accompanied by criticism.

5,000 cars produced for the first time

The opening of the first German plant is now a whole year ago and the factory employs around 10,000 people. Most recently, 4,000 electric cars per week were still being manufactured in Grünheide, but this number has now risen to 5,000 vehicles, as Tesla announced in a tweet.

Giga Berlin hits 5k builds/week-1 year after delivering the first vehicles to customers pic.twitter.com/PZigSaSci5

– Tesla (@Tesla) March 25, 2023

This production volume corresponds to an extrapolated 250,000 electric cars that roll off the assembly line in Grünheide. In the first expansion stage, this is also to be increased to 500,000 cars per year, i.e. around 10,000 per week. After the first expansion stage, the US company plans to expand the plant further and then produce a full million cars. However, the period in which this should take place remains open for the time being.

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