The community of Grünheide has taken a firm stand against a Tesla factory expansion in their town. In a referendum on the expansion of the Gigafactory Berlin, a clear majority of citizens spoke out against the proposal.
What: Tesla
Tesla originally planned to expand the existing Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg by around 170 hectares. To achieve this, 100 hectares of forest will be cleared in order to build a freight station, warehouses and a company kindergarten. Now Tesla has to stop these plans because the majority of citizens voted against the expansion in the referendum. According to a report by Tagesspiegel, 3,499 residents voted against, while 1,882 were in favor of the expansion. The voter turnout was around 61 percent. However, the municipal council’s approval of the development plan is still pending. Although the residents’ vote is not binding on them, it is still seen as an important signal.
For the 170-acre expansion, Tesla planned to build additional logistics and transportation facilities next to the existing Gigafactory. The Gigafactory only opened in March 2022. However, concerns about deforestation, pollution and noise seemed to prevail, which is why the vote was decided against it. The expansion in Grünheide was actually intended to be an essential part of Tesla’s plans to expand production capacity for electric vehicles in Europe and gain a larger market share in this region.
Enlargement despite negative referendum?
Nevertheless, Tesla is fundamentally sticking to its plan to expand the factory site, but is relying on cooperation. The company announced on Wednesday: “We see that the citizens of Grünheide have concerns in connection with the planned expansion of the area. We remain convinced that the logistical optimization of the plant is a great benefit for the community. Based on the feedback from the last few weeks, we will coordinate further steps with everyone involved.” It is now in the hands of the municipality to decide on the development plan process. The goal is still to shift a large part of the truck traffic to rail and to generally expand the infrastructure around the factory.