As Tesla’s presence grows around the world, the company has had a few hold-ups trying to complete the construction of a production facility in Germany, though it has now reached the home stretch, according to a new statement from the company’s head.
In a recent visit to the currently under construction Grünheide factory, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that he hopes Gigafactory Berlin will be making its first cars by October, according to Yahoo Finance. The news comes after months of regulatory approval delays from the German executive.
First Look: Camera Crew Reveals Inside of Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory [VIDEO] https://t.co/dkfitrRKgO
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) August 10, 2021
Musk made the visit to Germany to meet with German executives at Gigafactory Berlin’s site, in which he spoke with German Minister Armin Laschet, the conservative German candidate expected to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor.
During the visit, which included a walk with Laschet through the Brandenburg-based facility, Musk said, “We’re looking forward to hopefully getting the approval to make the first cars maybe in October if we are fortunate.”
Musk also announced on Friday morning there will be a Giga Berlin-Brandenburg county fair and factory tour on October 9, with priority given to local residents first, “but also open to general public”.
Priority for residents of Brandenburg & Berlin, but also open to general public
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2021
#GigaBerlin
August 13/2021
Here we can see in the ' Casting ' the #Gigapress and on the right side of the picture the aluminum melting furnace.
Everything already looks very complete.
In the foreground is @elonmusk and :
Please your comments 🙂pic: @FlorianGathmann pic.twitter.com/KjYO3uYzJL
— Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg 🇪🇺🇩🇪 (@Gf4Tesla) August 13, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg1K00Kpkrc
Last month, German officials said that Gigafactory Berlin’s approval was expected to come in the fourth quarter. Rumors earlier this year held that the factory would start prototype production as soon as May, though the facility is just now preparing to produce its first production trials.
