Berlin, March 22 -Tesla delivers to customers the first 30 Model Y cars manufactured at the € 5 billion ($ 5.5 billion) Grünheide plant on Tuesday to a German car factory Launching the first European production hub, which is the biggest investment in recent history.
CEO Elon Musk arrived in Berlin for the event on Monday and tweeted, “Tomorrow we are excited to hand over the first mass-produced car manufactured in Giga Berlin-Brandenburg!” ..
According to Tesla, the selected client will receive a Model Y performance configuration. The vehicle costs € 63,990 and has a range of 514 km (320 miles).
Sign up now for unlimited free access to Reuters.com
register
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends an event that Musk wanted to happen eight months ago. Still, the municipality said it was still relatively quick to complete.
“Some people didn’t believe Germany could do this,” regional finance minister Jörg Steinbach said on Tuesday on rbb radio. “We have shown the world.”
Tesla said Tuesday that more than 3,000 of the factory’s expected 12,000 workers have been employed so far.
The delay in licensing the factory meant that Tesla had to serve previous European orders from the Shanghai factory, pushing up logistics costs.
“It makes a big difference in capital efficiency for localizing production on the continent,” Musk tweeted.
At full capacity, the plant produces 500,000 vehicles annually. This is more than 450,000 battery-powered electric vehicles sold worldwide in 2021 by German rival Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE). It also produces 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery power, which exceeds all. Other plants Germany.
So far, Volkswagen still has the upper hand in the European electric vehicle market, with a market share of 25% compared to Tesla’s 13%. According to Musk, it will take more than two years to build the factory to increase production.read more
JPMorgan predicts that Grünheide will produce about 54,000 cars in 2022, increasing to 280,000 in 2023 and 500,000 in 2025.
Volkswagen has already received 95,000 EV orders in Europe this year and plans a new EV plant of € 2 billion in addition to the Wolfsburg plant and six battery plants throughout Europe.
However, its timeline lags behind Tesla, with the EV factory opening in 2026 and the first battery factory opening in 2023.
Tesla received final approval from the local government to start production on March 4, provided it meets some conditions that cover issues such as water use and air pollution control.read more
Automakers were losing their water contracts when a local environmental group filed a complaint with the Ministry of the Environment, which challenged the license given to Tesla’s water supplier.read more
($ 1 = 0.9086 euros)
Sign up now for unlimited free access to Reuters.com
register
Reported by Victoria Waldersee and Nadine Schimroszik. Edited by Jan Harvey and Edmund Blair
Our Criteria: Trust Principles.