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Tesla boss Elon Musk (archive image)
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BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP
After purchasing the Grohmann company in Prüm in the Eifel region in 2016, the electric car manufacturer Tesla took a stake in another Rhineland-Palatinate company.
A spokesman for the Federal Cartel Office announced that the Californian group got the green light to join the automotive supplier ATW based in Neuwied.
"It's a merger."
He did not give details, and ATW and Tesla did not initially comment either.
ATW (Assembly & Test Europe GmbH) belonged to the Canadian manufacturer ATS Automation Tooling Systems.
The latter recently announced the closure of its location in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The dazzling tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is building a factory for electric cars in Grünheide near Berlin, is saving jobs at the auto supplier from Neuwied.
With a workforce of around 210 employees, it counts corporations such as BMW, Daimler and VW among its customers.
Neuwied welcomes Tesla's entry
The Neuwied city spokesman Erhard Jung expressly welcomed it "when another international company" settles in his municipality on the Rhine: "Tesla plays a leading role in electromobility."
The mayor of Neuwied, Jan Einig (CDU), had recently argued in a similar way, pointing out that Tesla Grohmann Automation GmbH in Prüm is only around 100 kilometers away - that could facilitate cooperation between the two locations.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economics in Mainz had also expressed itself positively.
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