Tesla officially gets environmental clearance to produce 500,000 EVs at Gigafactory Berlin, but the fight isn't over

Tesla has officially received environmental clearance to begin production at the Gigafactory Berlin – which was expected as we reported earlier this week – but as well as expected, there are a few caveats that will keep Tesla from officially producing production. will stop starting.

The fight isn’t over.

After months of delays, German reports said earlier this week that Tesla was expected to finally receive final environmental clearance to begin production at the Gigafactory Berlin later this week. Environmental approval for the giant factory faced much opposition, with concerns ranging from deforestation to water supply and other concerns.

There were several setbacks for Tesla that prevented the company from winning approval, which has been seen as the final regulatory step needed to begin production.

Yesterday, we shared that a German newspaper reported that Tesla has already secured approval and a press conference with more details will follow on Friday – they also warned that it may not allow Tesla to resume production as was previously believed.

Today, the details have been released with a 536-page conditional building permit, but the word “conditional” is key here — there are about 400 conditions that Tesla needs to meet in order to begin production.

The automaker said it plans to cover all of them within the next two weeks; However, there are a few things that seem to be on a different timeline, such as another Notice of Public Objection, which is going to be published for two weeks and then will accept comments for a month:

The approval notice will be published shortly in local dailies and on the Internet in the Official Gazette of the State of Brandenburg. Notice of approval is available for two weeks From the day of publication in the municipality of Grünheide (Mark), in the city of Erkner, the office of Sprinhagen and the administrative headquarters of the Oder-Spree district in Bisko, as well as in the state office for the environment in Frankfurt (Oder). Supervision Close. One month period during which objections to approval Can be raised begins with the end of the exhibition. At the same time, the approval notice is published on the Internet on the EIA portal of the State of Brandenburg, where it can be viewed until the end of the objection period.

However, Tesla and German officials do not think this should delay the start of production.

Documents show that Tesla is approved to produce 500,000 electric vehicles per year at the Gigafactory Berlin, as well as a number of other production processes, including battery cell production. They also point out that Tesla has already hired about 3,000 employees at the plant.

While the battle to start production at the Gigafactory Berlin isn’t over, it looks like Tesla is in the home stretch.

To put into perspective what a massive effort this is, German officials revealed that the application documents – expert opinions and statements – consist of more than 23,700 pages in 66 files.

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