Tesla wants to double the capacity of its assembly plant outside Berlin to 1 million electric cars a year, and while German automakers keep pace with the transition to electric vehicles, Tesla is Europe’s largest. It will be an automobile factory. .
Since starting production in Grünheide 16 months ago, Tesla has transformed the German automotive industry. It surpassed Volkswagen in electric car sales for the first time in the first half of this year.
If the thousands of pages of detailed expansion made public on Wednesday get approval from local authorities, the output of the factory will go to Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, which was built in the 1930s and remains Europe’s largest today. It will surpass the Landmark Factory in Hong Kong. 815,000 units per year.
Volkswagen, as well as German car makers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have spent years trying to produce electric cars that can compete with Tesla on price and popularity. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, the number of new electric car registrations across the continent rose by more than 66% year-on-year in June, surpassing diesel vehicle sales for the first time.
Since March 2022, Tesla’s German plant has been producing about 5,000 Model Y sport utility vehicles each week, roughly half of its current capacity, which is still increasing. is. The company said it wanted to add capacity to make other models at the plant, but did not specify which. The company is also doubling its battery cell production, aiming for up to 100 gigawatt hours of storage capacity per year, according to the expansion documents.
The workforce will increase to 22,500 from the current 10,000, the company told residents at a city hall-style event near the plant on Tuesday. The company’s website lists dozens of job openings, mostly in the manufacturing sector, indicating that the company still has vacancies at its current factories.
Dirk Schulz, regional director of the IG Metall union, which has 2.3 million workers nationwide, welcomed the announcement of more jobs in economically weaker regions. But he called for better working conditions for those working.
“Despite a lot of sick leave, we’ve had a lot of headcount cuts,” Mr. Schultz said. “However, production targets have not been revised downwards, increasing the pressure on his remaining colleagues.”
IG Metall is frustrated by its inability to attract enough workers to draw up collective bargaining agreements for factory workers. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spoken out against unions.
Local residents and groups have been given one month to review the plan and submit any concerns to the authorities. A public hearing is scheduled for October.
Tesla has faced resistance from residents in the area since the factory was first proposed in 2019. They are concerned that the existing factory will become a drain for groundwater. The expansion plan includes building a water treatment plant that will allow the factory to recycle water at the cost of expanding resource use.
