Tesla Gigafactory Berlin is pushing to start production soon, and that’s despite a precarious permit situation.
The automaker is now installing production equipment, but it doesn’t have approval to start production.
As we previously reported, Tesla moved ahead with construction at Gigafactory Berlin without final approval for the project.
The company has faced some resistance from environmentalists over the deforestation effort and water supply concerns at the site of the new factory near Berlin.
In order to continue construction, the automaker has decided to move forward with individual permits, and the strategy has its own challenges.
A new report from Handelsblatt, a German publication that has been following the project closely though its permit applications, states that Tesla is still aiming to start production in July, and that the automaker could potentially get the final approval within the next month [translated from German]:
The final environmental approval for the factory by the state of Brandenburg is still pending. A decision on this is possible until the end of March or beginning of April. The construction of the factory is already advanced, however, because Tesla is building in individual steps through early approval. Most recently, the company received such a permit from the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment for the installation of machines.
Local officials, like Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel, have recently stated that Tesla currently has a path to reach trial production without the final environmental approval for Gigafactory Berlin.
But in order to start volume production of its electric vehicles, the automaker would need that final approval.
Tesla Gigafactory Berlin is arguably the automaker’s most important project of 2021.
The company is not launching the Model Y in Europe until the vehicle is produced at the new factory.
On top of launching the Model Y, Gigafactory Berlin is also going to produce 4680 battery cells, and it’s going to be the first production vehicle to use Tesla’s new structural battery pack architecture.
Therefore, there is a lot of pressure on Tesla to keep to its schedule to start production at Gigafactory Berlin.
We previously reported on reports coming out of Germany that claimed Tesla is facing some important delays on the project, but as we stated, those reports seemed to be lacking in credibility at the time.
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