Coinspeaker
Tesla Has Support from German Government for New Berlin GigaFactory

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of electric automaker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) Elon Musk has been reassured  by key officials in the German cabinet that he will have everything he needs to launch the new gigafactory on the outskirts of Berlin.

The billionaire CEO has been on a tour in Germany and had an hour-long meeting with Peter Altmaier, Germany’s economy minister on Wednesday. A source close to the matter noted that “The main topics were Tesla’s billions of euros worth of investment in Germany,” including the scheduled GigaFactory currently under construction in Brandenburg.

“There was very intense competition in recent months among different European nations,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told reporters in Berlin, adding that subsidies haven’t been discussed. “It’s an important and positive development that Germany was chosen.”

The plans for Tesla (TSLA) Gigafactory was made known by Elon Musk During the Golden Steering Wheel Award ceremony in November 2019, which also had BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen chiefs in attendance. Musk revealed back at the ceremony that the gigafactory will be in the “Berlin area” and will be specifically located very close to the city’s new airport. At the event, Musk said that one of the major reasons the company decided to choose Germany as the location for its new gigafactory is that “German engineering is outstanding.”

Since the plans were revealed, the factory has been undergoing massive construction and is billed to begin operation in the summer of 2021.

At the recent meeting with Altmaier, the minister told Musk at a meeting of Angela Merkel’s caucus group in Berlin, “We are very proud of your car plant in Brandenburg and we wish you good luck with that, You’ll have every assistance you need.”

The proposed Berlin GigaFactory will debut as the first in Europe and the fourth from Tesla (TSLA). The premier Gigafactory is the Nevada factory that just got saved from a cyber attack by both a loyal employee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The second Gigafactory is located in Buffalo, New York, and Shanghai, China while a fifth “Cybertruck Gigafactory” is planned for Texas.

The Berlin GigaFactory is billed to employ as much as 12,000 workers and churn out as many as 500,000 cars per year.

Despite the positive accolade, the German government is showering on Tesla (TSLA) for the new GigaFactory, some residents, particularly the environmentalists have found fault with the project.

As reported by CNBC, Environmental activists brought the factory’s development to a standstill for a few days in February after they raised concerns with Tesla’s plan to chop down trees to clear land for the new plant. However, the local government agency overseeing its intended site gave it permission to clear 91 hectares of forest land. 

While on his current visit to Germany, both fans and protesters lined the streets in what the official twitter handle of Tesla Model 2 described as a welcome for a ‘Popster’.

Tesla Has Support from German Government for New Berlin GigaFactory

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