The weekend we just left behind has been a very special one for Tesla. Elon Musk has visited the factory that the company he leads is building on the outskirts of Berlin and has taken the opportunity to refine a little more the role that these facilities will have as the nerve center of this company in the very heart of Europe.
The start-up of the Berlin-Brandenburg factory has been delayed for several months, but, according to Musk, the conditioning of these facilities prior to the start of production has already faced the final stretch . What is still pending is precisely the same thing that has contributed to the delay in the start-up of this factory: the claims of environmental groups.
The main fronts of confrontation between Tesla and environmentalists are the global environmental impact that this factory will have on the environment, and, in particular, its high water consumption . Last Saturday Musk assured that his company will be in charge of planting more trees in that region than he has cut down during the construction of this factory, and also that he will do everything in his power to consume the minimum amount of water possible.
Local authorities are still reviewing technical reports that analyze the environmental impact that these facilities will have on the environment, but Musk’s statements seem to indicate that final approval of their commissioning is imminent. In fact, during his visit to the factory this weekend, he assured that production will start during the next month of November , or, at the latest, in December.
Goal: build 5,000 to 10,000 cars per week by the end of 2022
The first electric car that will be produced at the new facility in Berlin-Brandenburg will be the Model Y . The units that are currently reaching the European market come from Tesla’s factory in Shanghai (China), but, of course, the purpose of this company is for its factory in Germany to be able to supply it as soon as possible with this model in a phase initial , and later also the Model 3 .
The main challenge that Tesla will have to face is not to start manufacturing the Model Y in its new German factory; The great challenge will be, and it is something that Elon Musk himself has confirmed, to reach a high cruising speed. According to this executive, they intend to produce between 5,000 and 10,000 vehicles a week by the end of 2022, but the fact that they are driving such a wide range reflects that they are still looking for a way to achieve this goal.
In fact, possibly getting carried away by a burst of enthusiasm and with the intention of motivating his future European employees, Musk has stated that Tesla needs a lot of talented and hard-working people to pull this bandwagon . One more note worth noting: initially the Berlin-Brandenburg factory will receive batteries from China until it is finally able to produce its own batteries.