The US electric car manufacturer Tesla sees a turnaround for the factory in Grünheide near Berlin in view of increasing demand – but an industry expert is skeptical.
This also applies to the expansion of the Tesla boss’s only car factory Elon Musk in Europe.
Tesla announced on Thursday that it would hire around 1,000 new employees in Grünheide by the end of June due to increased demand and increase production by a fifth from July.
Dudenhöffer: “Not convinced of long-term expansion”
“Tesla has done well in the last few months thanks to a discount program with a 3,000 euro discount,” Dudenhöffer told the German Press Agency. However, the bonus for Model Y is limited in time. In addition, in his opinion, Tesla has only refreshed the Models 3 and Y, which the company sees differently.
“They currently have more interest in Tesla because of its good delivery capability, good discounts and the fact that many people are more interested in it because of the Iran war Electric car have a good development,” said Dudenhöffer. “In my opinion, this is more of a one-off effect that will cool down again. I would therefore assume that an attempt is being made to bridge the current good situation with temporary workers. I’m not convinced about the long-term expansion.”
Tesla does not yet see its capacity limit reached
The car manufacturer is significantly increasing the number of employees due to a surge in demand. “The number of registrations in the markets we supply increased significantly in the first quarter,” said plant manager André Thierig on Thursday, explaining the reasons.
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) speaks of really good news. “Tesla relies on Brandenburg because, as a location for renewable energies, we offer the best conditions for future technologies,” he wrote on Instagram. He is particularly pleased that Tesla plans to take on around 500 additional temporary workers in permanent jobs over the course of the year.
Significantly more new registrations in Germany
In Germany, a comparison of new registrations shows the surge in demand for the US car manufacturer: While 4,935 new Teslas were registered from January to March 2025, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, from January to March 2026 there were exactly 12,829, which is more than two and a half times.
The plant manager in Grünheide believes the reasons for this are the promotion of electric vehicles, the increased fuel prices, but also the product itself – which is why production should be ramped up. “With 5,000 units per week, we are still far from reaching the factory’s capacity,” said Thierig. “We’re not there yet, even with 6,000 units.”
These weekly figures correspond to an increase in annual production from 250,000 to 300,000 cars. Tesla boss Musk wants to massively expand the factory. In the first phase, the company aimed for 500,000 cars a year, and when expanding, this would double to one million a year. However, these plans have so far been on hold due to the uncertain market situation.
Plant manager Thierig makes it clear that things should go step by step: “First of all, we will of course make the best possible use of the capacities we have.” Environmentalists view the factory with skepticism because it is partly located in a water protection area.
In premarket trading on NASDAQ, Tesla shares were temporarily 0.43 percent lower at $374.67.
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GRÜNHEIDE (dpa-AFX)
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