Tesla wants to expand its Grünheide car factory significantly. For this, trees have to be cleared again Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa
From BZ/dpa
Higher faster further. Before the Tesla e-car plant in Grünheide is even running smoothly, new expansion plans are already being made. And they entail increased security requirements!
The goal is to double production capacity from the initially targeted 500,000 cars to one million cars a year. Tesla is submitting applications in three parts for an environmental permit to the state of Brandenburg.
22,500 employees are planned for the expansion of production to one million vehicles. First, the “Potsdamer Latest News” had reported.
According to the company, the plans for the expansion have resulted in the operation being classified from the lower class to the upper class according to the Major Accidents Ordinance. This includes a comprehensive safety report. In the future, further reporting obligations will be necessary and the equipment of the plant fire brigade must be of a higher standard.
Also associated with the first partial permit application are a storage building for the storage of substances, a storage facility for liquid and hazardous waste, a laboratory for battery cell testing, a recycling point for battery waste and a plant for the recovery of water from the production process, according to the company.
► On Tuesday (July 18) Tesla will provide information at an event in Grünheide. The application should be publicly available from Wednesday (July 19), including the statements from the authorities, and in the Internet to be read. Citizens can then raise objections to the project until September 18th.
Tesla has been manufacturing electric cars in Grünheide near Berlin since March 2022. However, the goal of the first stage of expansion – 500,000 cars per year – had not yet been achieved. For this, 9,600 finished vehicles would have to roll off the assembly line every week. But so far there are about 5400. Currently around 10,000 employees work at Tesla in Grünheide. Recently, Tesla had even fired employees.