Reports in Germany state that Tesla has received its final environmental approval at Gigafactory Berlin, but there’s apparently something else that might prevent production.
A press conference is expected to explain everything on Friday.
After months of delays, German reports stated earlier this week that Tesla was expected to finally receive final environmental approval to start production at Gigafactory Berlin later this week.
The environmental approval for the giant factory faced a lot of opposition with concerns ranging from deforestation to water supply and more.
There were several setbacks for Tesla that prevented the company from securing the approval, which has been believed to be the last regulatory step needed to start production.
Now German newspaper Handelsblatt reports that the Potsdam State Office for the Environment (LfU) has given Tesla the final approval:
A goodtwo years after the start of construction, the environmental approval process for the electric car factory of the US company Tesla in Grnheide near Berlin has been completed.The Potsdam State Office for the Environment (LfU) gives the final approval for the new “Gigafactory.
The paper reports that a press conference to discuss the approval is being held by the authorities on Friday.
However, the publication also says that there’s a catch.
It reports that the approval won’t actually give Tesla the capacity to immediately start production:
The decision does not mean thatTeslacan then immediately start car production.The State Ministry for the Environment recently said that the project developer had to meet other requirements and provide evidence before the plant could be put into operation.
It’s unclear what additional “evidence” is going to be required.
As we previously reported, Gigafactory Berlin is critical for Teslas plans to expand in Europe and improve its manufacturing and distribution efficiency throughout its entire operations.
Once fully ramped up, the factory is expected to greatly reduce Tesla’s need to import cars from factories in the US and China.
In turn, that would enable more capacity for those markets and keep vehicle production closer to the end customers.
The new factory is also expected to greatly help Tesla’s financials by reducing transit times. Since Tesla owns its vehicles until they are handed over to the final customer, vehicles in transit for a long time, like on boats across the ocean, are a big financial strain on the company.
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