1 million cars planned

Tesla may expand Gigafactory in Grünheide

The US electric car manufacturer Tesla has been granted permission to expand its car factory in Germany in order to increase production capacity. According to the Ministry of the Environment, the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment has given the green light. This means that Tesla can start construction work ahead of schedule.

This involves expanding production on the existing factory site without clearing forest - in other words, not the planned expansion of the site to build a freight depot, which was accompanied by protests. Tesla wants to double the planned production of 500,000 cars in Grünheide near Berlin to one million cars a year; the latest projection was around 300,000 cars.

Environmentalists and local residents have major concerns because the plant is partly located in a water conservation area. The car manufacturer wants to build another large hall and optimize existing production facilities for the expansion. The capacity of battery storage production is also to be increased.

According to the ministry, the early start of construction involves a logistics area for new cars, including underground pipelines, as well as the construction of stairwells at the press shop and solar panels on roofs. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) supports the planned expansion. In March, previously unknown perpetrators carried out an attack on Tesla's power supply.