image
1

Elon Musk, Source: Steve Jurvetson on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Tesla pledges to build new Gigafactory near Berlin

Tesla pledges to build new Gigafactory near Berlin

Gigafactory 4 will build electric cars, powertrains and batteries

During the annual Goldene Lenkrad automotive awards (The Golden Steering Wheel awards) organized by the car magazine Autobild, Elon Musk, CEO and Founder of the world’s best-known electric car manufacturing company, announced that Tesla will be opening a new Gigafactory in the “Berlin area”.

After winning the award for best car in the middle / upper vehicle class with the Tesla Model 3, Elon Musk stated that the new Gigafactory will be located somewhere in the vicinity of Berlin’s long unfinished airport. Furthermore, he has shared plans that the company will open a design and engineering centre in the German capital in the future.

The factory is expected to provide a large number of jobs to locals and has already even begun posting job listings for the new site at its website.

Lobbying for the perfect location

At first Musk was considering the Franco-German border, near the Benelux countries, claiming that the location made the most sense.

Yet with the steady phasing out of coal, depriving Eastern German states of their main sources of employment and revenue, administrations wanted to prove to Musk that it’s actually the East that would provide him with the best opportunities.

The competition for winning over Elon Musk has been fierce and by the looks of it, the East managed to convince him, with Brandenburg evidently succeeding in its efforts. "Tesla is coming to Brandenburg with a big investment. We lobbied for this for a long time in intensive talks and with good arguments," Dietmar Woidke, the region’s premier stated according to Deutsche Welle.

The Gigafactory 4 near Berlin will be Tesla’s first giant operation in Europe. Two of the other factories are located in the United States, while the third one is currently under construction in Shanghai.

Newsletter

Back

Growing City

All

Smart City

All

Green City

All

Social City

All

New European Bauhaus

All

Interviews

All

ECP 2021 Winner TheMayorEU

Latest