The man who is building a factory without having a definitive authorization has returned to attack the bureaucracy. During his new visit to Grünheide, the area of Brandenburg just outside Berlin where Tesla is building the first European Gigafactory, Elon Musk complained again about the regulations. “There should be some kind of active process for removing the rules. Otherwise, over time, they will accumulate until eventually nothing can be done, ”he told reporters in Germany. Landed Sunday evening in the German capital apparently with a private jet, the manager of South African origins has carried out yet another inspection at the site where work continues on the basis of temporary concessions. After deciding to expand the project with a battery manufacturing plant, Musk was forced to postpone the start of electric car production. According to the initial project, the first vehicles were supposed to leave the assembly lines starting in July. The new deadline has slipped by a few months, but Tesla’s number one does not want to go beyond the end of 2021. “It is difficult to make precise assumptions, because you can only assemble a car when you have all the parts,” he said. “It looks like we should be able to start production by the end of the year,” he added. Musk called the rules “immortal” and observed that “if there was less bureaucracy it would be better.”
In Grünheide, the goal is to reach half a million cars a year at full capacity, starting with Model Y. For the Brandenburg region, the Tesla plant represents a driving force for the economy, but despite at least 10,000 new seats direct work that the American manufacturer should create, the judicial and administrative authorities do not seem willing to grant exemptions. Environmental impact assessments are still a problem for Musk: hydrological scenarios continue to worry residents and conservationists. Unions fear for industrial relations and it seems that the confrontation with the powerful IG Metal acronym that represents metalworkers has not started on the right foot: Musk would not be willing to transfer the classic contracts of the auto industry to German personnel.
Despite having political endorsement both at regional and federal level (Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said that without Elon Musk the electric car industry revolution would never have happened), Tesla’s number one risks having to deal with new delays. The new project for the battery production site will require additional bureaucratic steps, the timing of which is far from certain.