The first Tesla Gigafactory on European soil may become operational as soon as next week, reports German car magazine "Automobilwoche," citing the proverbial sources familiar with the matter. The Gigafactory in Berlin was supposed to start production in July, but the project had to be scrutinized further for environmental and investment requirements compliance. The Brandenburg State Environment Office is allegedly ready to grant the necessary permission, paving the way for the first Tesla Model Y electric SUV to roll off the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg conveyor belts in the next few weeks. Five of those may have already been produced in a trial run there, as you can see at the 6:40 and 8:00 marks in the video below.
According to Automobilwoche's sources, the German Gigafactory will ramp up production from 1000 electric vehicles a week in January to about 30,000 Tesla Model Y units in the first half of 2022 alone. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has complained a few times about the red tape surrounding his first Gigafactory project in Europe and just declined €1.14 billion ($1.35 billion) in EU subsidies meant for in-house battery production. The Berlin factory was initially conceived with Model Y production in mind, but later the project expanded to include the innovative Tesla 4680 battery cells.
While Mr. Musk made the withdrawal decision sound like Tesla wants to go it alone without government support, the company may simply be ineligible for the program, as the EU only earmarks subsidies for the "first industrial deployment" of a battery technology. In any case, after a lengthy delay, the Tesla Gigafactory in Germany may start churning Model Ys in a matter of days.
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