Government hopes the Tesla factory will boost other major projects

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Construction work on the new Tesla plant in Grünheide: Greens speak of "a stroke of luck for Germany as an automotive location"

Soeren Stache / dpa

The construction of the new Tesla factory is proceeding at a rapid pace. According to the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment, it was not until the beginning of the week that the State Office for the Environment granted permission for an early start of construction in a further section: The US electric car manufacturer can now drive piles into the ground as part of the foundations.

The speed with which Tesla boss Elon Musk is pulling up the new factory in Grünheide near Berlin is also surprising the federal government. According to the Federal Government's Commissioner for SMEs, Thomas Bareiß, the building is a model for other large-scale construction projects. "Tesla shows what is possible when political will as well as efficient and fast processing procedures in administration and courts meet the will to implement in business and industry," said the CDU politician to the "Handelsblatt".

If the final building permit is actually given in November 2020, the duration of the procedure, at just twelve months, is "more than a record," said the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics of the newspaper. Tesla could not only stir up the German automobile market, but also revolutionize our location in Germany in terms of approval procedures for industrial plants. In fact, large-scale projects - such as railroad lines, motorways or new wind turbines - are often stuck in long-term proceedings elsewhere. The federal government now wants to counter this with a new law to accelerate investments.

IW Cologne expects a suction effect

How Tesla is building under the existing framework conditions, according to Michael Hüther, Director of the Institute of German Economy (IW) Cologne, meanwhile has a "signal effect". The rapid construction progress in Grünheide is "a great example of how intelligent and early coordination after a fundamental decision can accelerate planning and implementation," said Hüther to the "Handelsblatt".

The fact that Tesla is now also planning battery production in Germany, according to Hüther, speaks for a "suction effect".

Tesla plans to have up to 500,000 vehicles roll off the assembly line in Grünheide in Brandenburg from July 2021. Tesla builds at its own risk with early approvals, the final environmental approval from the state of Brandenburg is still pending. 

According to the Brandenburg Environment Minister Axel Vogel, Tesla's project management is good. "Tesla is constantly working on improvements," said the Green politician to the "Handelsblatt". "Where other companies struggle, Tesla signals: We don't want to create problems, we want to solve problems."

Even the Greens are enthusiastic

As an example, the minister cited the water consumption of the future factory, which is being built in a drinking water protection area. That is why the annual water consumption has been more than halved from originally three million cubic meters to 1.4 million, said Vogel. "The amount of water required is not unusual for an industrial company of this size," added the minister. "Tesla's water supply in the first phase is not in doubt."

Tesla itself also recently announced that the new Gigafactory will get by with significantly fewer concrete piles in the groundwater than previously planned. "Originally we believed that we would need up to 15,000 stakes, in the end it was still 1,100," said a spokesman at the opening of "Tesla Street", which leads to the Tesla site. Now you have been able to change the concept so that you can get by with 500 to 550 piles. "Only the press shop, but no longer the foundry, is built on stilts."

Are specialists from Stuttgart drawn to Grünheide?

The Greens in the Bundestag consider the settlement in Brandenburg a "stroke of luck for Germany as an automotive location". Tesla is putting the German manufacturers under maximum pressure, parliamentary group vice-president Oliver Krischer told Handelsblatt. "If BMW and Mercedes in particular do not react more strongly, the best specialists from Munich and Stuttgart will likely switch to the new competitor."

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