Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin construction project has been quite the saga, and one with hibernating snakes, unpaid security deposits, and, according to Tesla, a whole lot of government red tape.
In a letter to courts Wednesday, Tesla harshly criticized the German government for slowing down the battle against climate change through the “particularly irritating” fact of it not providing Tesla with a timeframe for the Gründheide factory, reports Yahoo Finance.
The criticism comes after Tesla themselves were criticized by environmental groups, due to the deforestation of surrounding lands which disturbed the natural habitats of hibernating snakes.
Germans Divided Over Tesla Gigafactory Berlin’s Environmental Impact https://t.co/hRkzmVuXKn
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) January 6, 2021
In the letter, Tesla wrote, “The German approval framework for industrial and infrastructure projects as well as spatial planning directly contradicts the urgency to plan and realize such projects that is necessary to battle climate change.”
The letter was dated April 7 slammed the German government for failing to provide a final approval for the plant, despite Tesla applying for it 16 months ago.
In addition, Tesla was also forced to halt construction in December after failing to pay €100 million in security deposits, though the company’s construction resumed just a few weeks later, seemingly with no more snake or security deposit issues, after the company agreed to re-plant three times the number of trees it cuts down surrounding the factory.
While red tape has significantly slowed Tesla’s process of construction, the problem has also plagued German wind energy expansion projects in the past, with some projects taking years to go from initial conception to realization.
A full translation of Tesla’s letter was shared on Reddit earlier today. Tesla notes it plans to have Giga Berlin “operational by July 2021”:
In November 2019, Tesla announced its plans to build the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, a multi-billion dollar electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Grünheide (Mark) (hereafter: the “GFBB”). The GFBB is a fundamental cornerstone of Tesla’s mission. Tesla hopes to complete construction of the facility and have it operational by July 2021, creating approximately 12,000 on-site jobs and an initial projected production capacity of 500,000 electric cars per year.
