Tesla's application to add a battery plant to Giga Berlin gets scheduled for a final public review. The plans will be available for the public to comment on from June 13 up to July 14.
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After weeks of speculation, on June 4 Tesla officially submitted an amended application to include a battery factory in the company’s Berlin gigafactory application.
In its initial phase, the battery factory is expected to have a 100GWh annual production capacity. This will make Giga Berlin’s battery plant by far the biggest cell factory in the world.
The 100 GWh cell production also hints at Giga Berlin being Tesla’s largest factory as the cell production is enough to produce a million vehicles a year.
However, in the long run, according to Elon Musk, this number could rise to 250 - 300 GWh, suggesting long-term production of 2.5 to 3 million vehicles per year just from Giga Berlin.
Cathie Wood and her firm ARK Invest, which are long-term bullish investors in Tesla, believe according to Tesla’s growth trajectory the EV maker can produce 5 to 10 million vehicles a year by 2025.
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Tesla has already started work on the Giga Berlin battery plant. However, the EV maker started building the shed with a permit for a warehouse and later amended the plans to include a cell factory.
And now that Tesla has officially filed the paperwork to add a battery plant to Giga Berlin, the new plans have to undergo a second public review process.
According to the Brandenburg State Environmental Agency, the public preview will be held from June 14 up to July 13.
This review however will not only include the battery plant but some changes Tesla made to the Giga Berlin car assembly section.
And unless the Brandenburg environmental agency made an egregious mistake in permitting Tesla, this is expected to be the last hurdle before the EV maker is granted the final permit.
However, there is stiff resistance toward Tesla’s Giga Berlin plans among German environmental groups which criticize the plant on the basis of its water use.
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There are also some in the financial media with a short position on Tesla who object to the Grunheide plant. One such egregious example is German Newspaper FAZ’s call to bring “Elon Musk to his knees” by joining forces to short Tesla.
Still the overall sentiment towards Tesla in Germany is overwhelmingly positive. A recent survey by Trendence, a German market analysis firm, has found Tesla to be the number one sought-after employer in Germany.
So what do you think? Do you foresee the public review of Tesla’s plans delaying the Giga Berlin project? Any of you in the area and planning to observe the process? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below.
For more information check out: A Giant Battery Factory is Being Built by Tesla Giga Shanghai Also, see Elon Musk Frustrated With China Tesla Brake Failure FUD
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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