After Nevada, New York and China, it will be … Germany! Tesla will open its fourth “gigafactory” (“mega-factory”), and it will be located in the suburbs of Berlin, announced Elon Musk Tuesday. “I have an announcement that will probably be well received,” he said after receiving the Golden Volant awarded by the newspaper Bild , and before revealing the long-awaited name of the victorious European country.
This plant “will build batteries, engines and vehicles, starting with the Model Y “, the Tesla crossover expected in 2020, he said later on Twitter account.
On stage, the billionaire boss praised German engineering, “extraordinary”, “one of the reasons we are going to set up our mega European factory in Germany”. The Berlin plant will also include an engineering and design center, because “Berlin has some of the best works of art in the world,” he added.
30% of the European electrical market
Tesla accounts for 30% of the European battery electric car market, according to Matthias Schmidt, an analyst specializing in the automotive industry. Asked about Germany’s delay in electric vehicles, Elon Musk replied: “I do not think Germany is very late. “It’s always more difficult when there is still a lot of dynamism and infrastructure in place around old technology,” he continued. “When we started at Tesla, everyone thought we were crazy. “
“This announcement is good news for the automotive industry in Germany,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, professor at the Car Research Center at the University of Duisburg Essen. “Competition has always made things faster and better. So that’s also good news for Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. Elon Musk’s decision will accelerate electromobility in Germany more quickly than with 100 summits organized by the Chancery. “
In 2021 … or later
The date of 2021 was mentioned for the start of production in this plant, but the expert “do not believe it”, because the manufacturer must “balance his finances” and the Chinese factory “is clearly a priority” .
Tesla has recently returned to profitability, after two quarters in the red, and has renewed its promise to deliver between 360,000 and 400,000 new cars in all this year. He also welcomed the production tests carried out in the new giant factory in Shanghai (about 865,000 square meters), built in ten months and an annual production capacity of at least 500,000 cars.
This plant “was almost 65% cheaper (…) to build than our entire Model 3 production system in the United States,” said the group, whose objectives are to continue to increase its sales and marketing volumes. control its costs to be sustainable profitably. Production of the Model Y crossover is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2020 in all its plants.
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