Future Mobility
Tesla Reshapes Automotive Industry with German Gigafactory
Elon Musk was present in person to hand over the keys to customers who had preordered one of Tesla’s first German-made model Y vehicles, as the US automotive giant inaugurated its first European gigafactory in Brandenburg near Berlin.
Mar 22, 2022
Attending the ceremony on March 22, 2022 were German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck. Scholz underscored the importance of the project, which has injected jobs, money and a huge amount of future potential into an area of Germany not previously known for the automotive industry.
“Germany’s east is also leading the way in terms of industry. Electromobility will be the mobility of the future.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
“Danke Deutschland,” tweeted the iconic and iconoclastic Musk.
The gigafactory, which is located near the town of Grünheide, is Europe’s largest electric vehicle production facility and will employ as many as 12,000 people. It has already attracted German and international automotive suppliers to the region and represented at the time the biggest foreign direct investment in eastern Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tesla chose its new location for a variety of reasons: access to Europe’s largest economy, Germany’s skilled labor force, excellent regional infrastructure, the stability of the German legal and economic framework, and support from national and regional authorities.
Journalists and industry leaders and observers celebrated the opening as a major milestone and another example of the German automotive industry continuing to expand out from its tradition strongholds in the south, Saxony and Wolfsburg.
„The day is finally at hand – Tesla’s newest gigafactory is now officially open,” said Germany Trade & Invest automotive expert Stefan Di Bitonto. “It’s a fantastic moment for the Berlin-Brandenburg region and for Tesla customers.”
