Elon Musk opens his Tesla “mega-factory” in Germany

Tesla president Elon Musk danced with joy at the opening of his electric car “mega-factory” near Berlin on Tuesday, leaving behind two years of bureaucracy.

“Danke Deutschland!” (“Thank you, Germany”) Musk tweeted after the plant's opening ceremony, where he applauded, along with the company's employees, the 30 drivers who got behind the wheel of their new cars. He even started dancing a little during the deliveries of the cars, like “Model Y”.

The opening of the plant puts an end to a long two-year process of authorizations and works in which Tesla had to overcome various administrative and legal entanglements, including complaints from the population about the environmental impact that the factory will have.

The German Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck, attended the event with the German head of government, Olaf Scholz, and indicated that it was “a special day for the transformation of mobility in Germany”.

With this plant, located in Gruenheide, in the Brandenburg region (east), Tesla expects to employ some 12,000 employees and have a production capacity of 500,000 annual “Model Y” electric vehicles.

It is Tesla's first production facility in Europe.

Tesla's arrival in Germany is expected to mark a turning point for that country's automotive industry, which has heavyweights such as Volkswagen and Mercedes.

The arrival of the Californian company in Europe comes at a time of sharp increase in the price of energy on the continent, with oil skyrocketing, which has led some drivers to opt for electric alternatives.

Like other automakers, Tesla has also been affected by material shortages and supply chain problems, caused in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Near the factory, a group of environmental activists demonstrated, demanding a better public transport system instead of “more cars,” according to Lou Winters, a spokesperson for the environmental group Sand im Getriebe.

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