Electric cars: Tesla is pushing ahead with factory expansion - the goal is one million cars

Grünheide. The US electric car manufacturer Tesla wants to pick up the pace with expansion plans at its German factory in Grünheide. A new production hall is planned. The aim is for the second partial approval for the expansion to be submitted at the end of the year, said a spokeswoman for the German Press Agency. The company is making internal preparations for this. How big the hall will be is still unclear. The RBB and the “Märkische Oderzeitung” initially reported.

On the site of Elon Musk's only electric car factory in Europe, Tesla wants to double production according to previous plans from a planned 500,000 cars per year - which has not yet been achieved - to one million per year. The storage capacity of battery cell production is also expected to increase significantly: according to previous plans, to 100 gigawatt hours per year in the future. No additional forest needs to be cleared for this.

Tesla did not abandon its expansion plans even during a slump in sales, but initially put them on hold and made them dependent on a better market situation. Demand is now picking up again and Tesla is bucking the trend in hiring employees. According to Tesla, the factory near Berlin, which opened in March 2022, currently has 12,600 employees. In the meantime the number had fallen below 11,000 employees.

The company wants to increase production in two steps to 7,500 vehicles per week. This corresponds to around 375,000 vehicles per year. To achieve this, 2,000 new employees will be hired. In addition, more than 1,500 new employees are planned for the expansion of battery cell production in Grünheide. A spokeswoman said an additional 2,000 employees have been hired in the past few months.

Two years ago, Tesla received the green light from the state of Brandenburg to take the first step in expanding the plant. At that time, the State Environment Agency issued the first environmental approval for changes and optimization of buildings and facilities that had already been constructed.

According to the company, the second stage involves the construction of the new workshop and logistics space, and the third stage involves the introduction of machines. Environmentalists and residents have concerns about the factory and its expansion because it is partly located in a water protection area.