Lanyu Cultural Industrial Tourism Design Institute learned that the Factory of American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla in Berlin, Germany, was officially opened on the 22nd, which is Tesla's first electric vehicle factory in Europe. On the same day, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also delivered the first Model Y SUV model manufactured at the Berlin factory to users at the Berlin factory. Some analysts believe that Tesla will become the main competitor of German automakers such as Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz in the field of electric vehicles, or will force the German auto industry to accelerate its transformation.
First, through all the twists and turns
Germany's state of Brandenburg said Tesla's TSLA.O German gigafactory near Berlin received conditional approval on Friday, ending months of delays in the 5 billion-euro ($5.5 billion) iconic factory.
The gigafactory was supposed to open last summer. The plant is crucial to CEO Elon Musk's ambitions to beat European market leader Volkswagen.
Previously, the plant's production has been repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic, complicated approval procedures and opposition from local environmental groups. But Germany's Brandenburg state ministry of the environment said it could object to Tesla's approval within a month.
On November 12, 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company's plan in Berlin, mainly to supply Tesla with batteries, battery packs and powertrains, and plans to assemble Tesla Model Y in the future.
The factory is located in Greenhead, Brandenburg, 35 km (20 mi) southeast of Berlin, Germany, near The German Highway 10. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in early 2020, but construction was postponed until July 2020 due to local environmental concerns.
On October 9, 2021, Elon Musk came to the site of Tesla's European Gigafactory to celebrate the completion of the factory. On March 5, 2022, the Environment Ministry in Brandenburg, Germany, announced that Tesla's European Gigafactory has obtained a conditional license to start production.
On March 22, 2022, Elon Musk announced the official opening of Tesla's European Gigafactory. Musk improvised and awkwardly celebrated while presiding over the delivery ceremony of the first German-made cars, delivering 30 new cars to their owners.
At the same time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also personally attended the opening ceremony of the Tesla factory and praised the factory as representing the future of the automotive industry.
Second, wonderful factory
As Tesla's first gigafactory in Europe, the Berlin Gigafactory has a total investment of up to 5 billion euros. It is understood that the plant covers an area of 227,000 square meters and is about the size of 30 football fields. Tesla expects the Berlin plant to recruit 12,000 people, which has already employed 3,500 people. At full capacity, the plant will be able to produce 500,000 vehicles per year, surpassing the number of pure electric vehicles (450,000) sold globally by its German rival Volkswagen in 2021. According to the German magazine Auto & Sport, the Tesla plant aims to produce 2,000 cars in the first few weeks of mass production.
According to the plan, the Berlin Gigafactory will mainly produce models such as the Model 3 and Model Y. However, the first production will begin to be the Model Y. According to previous reports, Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory plans to produce 1,000 Model Ys per week after being put into operation in the first quarter of 2022, and it is expected that by the first half of 2022, Model Y production will reach 30,000 units.
Exposure documents show that the Tesla Model Y sedan produced at the Berlin factory has a battery life of 565km, equipped with a new 12V lithium battery pack, the performance of the car processor has been enhanced, and the audio system has also improved.
As for the Tesla Model 3, it has not been said when production will begin in Germany, but the car is priced higher and has a range of up to 626 kilometers.
The Berlin plant is the fourth gigafactory after California, Texas and Shanghai, and Tesla's first manufacturing plant in Europe, and is by far the most advanced and efficient factory to date because of the latest opening.
According to Tesla, it takes ten hours to complete a Tesla car, the car moves every 45 seconds on the assembly line, and there are more than 400 robots in the workshop involved in manufacturing.
On the same day, the first Tesla Model Y was delivered to users at the factory, and the first batch of vehicles totaled 30 vehicles, each of which was installed in front of the exclusive license plate of "GIGA XXX", with numbers ranging from 001 to 030. At the same time, Musk also signed each car.
3. Germany vs China
For Tesla, the production of the Berlin factory is of great significance, Musk has also inserted a sharp knife in Europe, the birthplace of the automobile industry, with supply chain advantages and local government financial subsidies, Tesla's sales in Europe may grow again. How to deal with Tesla's challenge will become a difficult problem facing European car brands such as Volkswagen and BBA.
On the other hand, the mainland is just the opposite, the original mainland automobile industry is not very developed, and in the field of automobiles, people in developed countries have hundreds of years of technical barriers, it is difficult for us to break through. But when it comes to electric vehicles, everyone returns to the same starting line, just like after apple mobile phones were introduced to the mainland, this huge catfish effect made the mainland mobile phone brand grow rapidly. Similarly, after Tesla entered the mainland, it also made the mainland national electric vehicle brand stand out, so in this sense, Tesla to the mainland to build a factory is a proper win-win situation. And to build a factory in Germany is really likely to completely turn the German automobile industry for hundreds of years.
Stefan Bratzel, director of the Bergisch Gladbach Center for Automotive Management in Germany, said that while Tesla is "a thorn in the flesh of a German automaker," its presence in Germany could ultimately help boost the auto industry as a whole. "While it will be the strongest competitor close at hand, it can also have an incentive effect," he said. ”
Investment firm Wade Bush said the Berlin Gigafactory was one of Tesla's biggest strategic decisions over the past decade, and tesla expects to further expand its market share in Europe in the coming years as more consumers opt for electric vehicles.
Volkswagen will sell 450,000 electric vehicles worldwide in 2021, down from the planned annual capacity of 500,000 at the Berlin plant. Tesla's 50-gigawatt battery capacity will also surpass other German factories.
Tesla said it will take longer than the two years it took to build the plant to achieve full capacity. At present, Volkswagen's market share in Europe is higher than Tesla's, the former is 25%, the latter is 13%. Volkswagen received orders for 95,000 electric vehicles in Europe this year.
Volkswagen previously announced it would spend 2 billion euros to build a new plant near its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, to produce Volkswagen's next-generation electric vehicles, and would build six battery factories in Europe. However, construction of the new electric vehicle plant will begin next year and is not expected to be operational until 2026, with the first battery factory due to open in 2023. These are behind Tesla's factories.
With the commissioning of Tesla's German factory, the demand for Tesla in Europe will be met to a certain extent, and the number of Tesla vehicles exported from Chinese factories may also be dynamically adjusted, and the waiting cycle of domestic car owners is expected to be shortened.
As an important export center of Tesla, Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory has contributed more than 160,000 vehicles to overseas market deliveries, covering more than 10 countries such as Europe and Asia.
With the operation of the Berlin Gigafactory will greatly increase Tesla's production capacity and alleviate the pressure of delivery, Model Y sales in Europe may increase rapidly.
In February, Musk said Tesla's car deliveries would increase by more than 50 percent in 2022 from last year, meaning Tesla would deliver more than 1.4 million vehicles this year.
At present, Tesla's Shanghai factory has an annual output of 470,000 vehicles, and deliveries in 2021 account for 51.7% of Tesla's total deliveries, and the factory has recently begun to expand and renovate, and is expected to reach 1.1 million vehicles per year.
Tesla's gigafactory in Fremont, California, produces 600,000 units a year, and the Austin, Texas plant is also under construction, with an annual production capacity of 500,000 units, and is expected to be put into production this year.
If all goes well, Tesla's total production capacity will exceed 2.7 million units as the Berlin and Texas plants come on stream, and global capacity will exceed the expected increase in sales.
Fourth, China may usher in a second Tesla factory
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Tesla will also build a second gigafactory in China, including nearly 10 cities such as Wuhan, Qingdao and Shenyang. It is understood that at the end of January 2022, Musk said that he would announce the location of Tesla's fifth factory in the world during the year.
Some analysts pointed out that Tesla's fifth factory in the world may land in China. Previously, Tesla said that the news about the location of its second domestic factory in Shenyang Dadong District was untrue, and said that the location of Tesla's second domestic factory has not yet been determined.
There is also news that Tesla's second factory or will still be located in the Shanghai Pudong New Area Lingang New Area, the earliest will start in March this year, when the new factory is fully operational, Tesla's total production capacity in China will reach 2 million. But the news was immediately denied by Tesla.
JPMorgan expects Tesla's Berlin plant to produce 54,000 units this year, which will increase to 280,000 units next year and possibly 500,000 units in 2025.
Tesla has become the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer in 2019. In 2021, Tesla vehicle deliveries surged 87 percent, a record growth rate, with more than 936,000 vehicles delivered worldwide.
Still, like many other automakers, Tesla is still struggling to shake off shortages of key raw materials and rising energy prices, especially in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Musk said on the 13th that Tesla is currently facing significant inflationary pressures, mainly in terms of raw materials and logistics.
Although the Tesla factory is still in the early stage of production as the core, the Lanyu Cultural Industrial Tourism Design Institute found from the existing pictures and texts that its factory has reserved a wide passage and corridor, which is believed to be the space left for subsequent development. In the early stage, production-oriented, later ushered in competition, will inevitably be based on brand promotion, at this time, the reserved space will become the later stage of industrial tourism, to help enterprises create a product experience in the excellent space. It's worth looking forward to!