The opening of the new gigafactory is set to shake up the industry in the birthplace of the internal combustion engine. Tesla handed over the first electric cars produced at the site to clients as part of an opening ceremony on Tuesday (22 March).
The start of production at the gigafactory is a crucial day for Germany’s mobility transition, the Economic and Climate Minister Robert Habeck said at the factory site. “The path towards electromobility is another step away from oil imports,” he added, connecting to the current energy and fuel crisis.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has forced Germany and the EU to radically rethink their energy policy, given that the continent is heavily dependent on Russian fossil fuels. Handelsblatt quoted Habeck as saying: “To show we can not only replace oil with oil, but we can electrify, is, of course, a beautiful symbol on this day.”
The arrival of Tesla’s “gigafactory” near Berlin has sparked debate in the past two years. Both environmental concerns and fear of disruption for the established automobile industry had come to the forefront during the factory’s construction.
After a long and drawn-out process, authorities granted the project a final conditional permit on 4 March. German law allowed the company to proceed with construction on the basis of provisional licences, despite questions regarding the factory’s environmental impact.
At full capacity, the plant will produce 500,000 cars a year, more than the 450,000 battery-electric vehicles that German rival Volkswagen sold globally in 2021, Reuters reported. It would also generate 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery power, surpassing all other plants in Germany.
Dancing Musk hands drivers first Teslas from new Germany gigafactory
The transition to electric cars is rapidly gathering pace in Europe. Last year, registrations of purely electric vehicles in Germany soared 83% to reach 14% overall, while the number of new hybrid cars (including plug-ins) rose by more than 40% to a total share of 29%.
The German government recently announced it would support the European Commission’s efforts to phase out the combustion engine for newly registered passenger cars by 2035 – a shift that large parts of the country’s car industry have criticised as they depend on the production of conventional vehicles.
The Commission’s proposal is currently being debated by member state governments and the European Parliament.