According to German business newspaper Handelsblatt, local politicians and officials expect Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be in attendance for the first customer deliveries out of the company’s $5 billion Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory (via Yahoo Finance).
Tesla has scheduled a delivery day event for March 22 at Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg.
“I expect that Elon Musk will be there on Tuesday,” Joerg Steinbach, Brandenburg’s minister of economy, told the paper. “When a Gigafactory starts operation, the first cars are handed over in the presence of Elon Musk,” he added.
Invites to the delivery day event were sent out last week, just days after Tesla received conditional final approval from the German government to officially kick off operations at the Grünheide Gigafactory.
A schedule for the delivery event reported on Sunday mentioned Musk may attend the event, but stops short of confirming an appearance from the Tesla CEO. According to the schedule, the all-day event will also include a 30-minute factory tour for new Model Y owners in attendance.
Volkswagen currently commands a 25% share of electric vehicle (EV) sales in Europe, compared to Tesla’s 13%.
However, Giga Berlin going online will not only bolster Tesla’s production capacity but also cut down delivery times and vehicle pricing in Europe, putting Tesla in a much better position not only on Volkswagen’s home turf of Germany but in Europe as a whole. Volkswagen’s CEO admitted last year that Giga Berlin is bound to increase competition in Germany.
Tesla last week also launched a new delivery option in Germany called ‘Tesla Drop,’ which allows customers to pick their cars up from their designated delivery centers after hours.
