By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Tesla’s earlier announced gigafactory for the European market has now been revealed by Elon Musk to be in Berlin. The factory is expected to be fully operation no later than 2021, and will begin with the Model Y.
Billionaire CEO of Tesla Elon Musk, has revealed that the American automotive and energy company plans to build its first European gigafactory in Germany. Musk made this known at a ceremony in Berlin where he received an award for Tesla’s Model 3 which won the midsize car of the year, over other options such as Audi and BMW.
During the Golden Steering Wheel Award ceremony which also had BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen chiefs in attendance, Musk revealed that there were too many details to get into, but specified that the gigafactory will be in the “Berlin area” and will be specifically located very close to city’s new airport. At the event, Musk said that one of the major reasons the company decided to choose Germany as the location for its new gigafactory is that “German engineering is outstanding.”
Musk has been accused many times before of edging towards the dramatic for Tesla announcements and even overselling the cars’ abilities. His announcement of a German gigafactory at an award ceremony in Berlin, where other major automobile heads were in attendance – especially after a company report which showed Tesla shares had spiked – plays right into what is known as Musk’s regular modus operandi.
CEO John Boyd, principal at the Boyd Company for site selection, put it best when he said:
“Elon Musk has the ability to make a splash. Not only does Germany bring top-level manufacturing skill sets and positive supply chain dynamics to the table, but there is a cache value to Tesla establishing a brick-and-mortar presence in Germany – a nation synonymous with precision car manufacturing.”
After the awards ceremony, Musk took to his Twitter and announced a few more details about the upcoming “GIGA BERLIN” revealing that the factory will be dedicated to building batteries, powertrains and vehicles as well, and will begin with the Model Y. Tesla had previously hinted the announcement about a European gigafactory months ago, however suggesting that it may not fully begin operations till 2021.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1194373823912538112?s=20
Even though Tesla has already been making electric vehicles for years, the company might need to buckle up for some competition coming in the fast half of next year. China’s Evergrande Group which is the country’s second-largest real estate developer has announced that it will debut its first electric vehicle by June 2020.
Worth thinking about is whether or not Evergrande really has a chance against Tesla because of the latter’s experience and also because the June date is a whole year later than initially announced. Evergrande had revealed that it would debut its first fully electric car a few months ago, but launched a different car instead, at the time.
Chairman Hui Ka Yan who is also the third richest man in China, has also said that Evergrande will become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles with the company already employing a very aggressive approach to achieve this aim. According to the chairman at an event in Guangzhou:
“For core technology and companies available to be purchased, we’ll buy them all. For those we couldn’t buy, we’d like to join hands with them through cooperation.”
So far, Evergrande has invested over $3.6 billion in the development of electric vehicles and hopes to spend a lot more on its offerings. The car will be released with the name “Hengchi” by next year but mass production will not begin until 2021.