Beijing, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Officials from the German state of Brandenburg issued a conditional permit for the us tesla company to build a super factory outside Berlin on the 4th, paving the way for the electric vehicle manufacturer's first factory in Europe to be put into operation.
According to Reuters, Tesla received a 536-page conditional building permit that day, but that doesn't mean it could be put into production immediately. Tesla must first demonstrate that it meets a number of conditions, including water use and air pollution control, before it can obtain an operating license.
Brandenburg Environment Minister Axel Fogel said Tesla plans to prove it meets the prescribed conditions within two weeks, with the public raising objections within the next month.
On January 18, 2019, people experienced Tesla Model 3 cars at the Brussels Motor Show in Belgium. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Zheng Huansong)
Tesla announced in 2019 that it will build its first European plant in Greenhead, just outside Berlin, divided into two parts: a car plant and a battery plant. Tesla then began building a factory at a cost of 5 billion euros (about 34.5 billion yuan) under pre-approval, which was originally planned to start production by July 1, 2021, with an annual production capacity of up to 500,000 vehicles, but was delayed by the covid-19 pandemic, supply chain and environmental issues.
According to Reuters, environmental groups are worried about the Tesla Gigafactory destroying the local flora and fauna ecology; the local area has suffered from summer droughts for the past three consecutive years, and residents are worried that the factory's heavy water use will exacerbate the drought. Under pressure from environmentalists, the Brandenburg state government scrutinized the establishment of the plant and delayed in approving the building permit.
A customer refuels a vehicle at a gas station in Berlin, the capital of Germany, on Jan. 19. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Stefan Zetz)
Brandenburg Governor Dietmar Vojdeck said at a press conference on the 4th that Tesla's conditional permission marks "a big step towards the future" and tesla gigafactory will become the main industrial and technological driver in Germany and the region.
"The future is very exciting!" Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in German on social media twitter.
According to Agence France-Presse, Brandenburg hopes to use the Tesla factory to drive employment and turn the state into an electric vehicle production center. Tesla expects to hire 12,000 people at its Factory in Germany. German unions said last month that about 2,600 people had been hired.
This is the electric vehicle ID.3 released by Volkswagen AG, which was filmed in Frankfurt, Germany, on September 10, 2019. (Photo by Xinhua reporter Lu Yang)
Tesla's competitor Volkswagen Group announced on the 4th that it will spend 2 billion euros to build a new factory near its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, to produce Volkswagen's new generation of electric vehicles. Construction of the new plant will begin next year.
At present, Volkswagen's market share in Europe is higher than Tesla's, the former is 25%, the latter is 13%. (Liu Xi)