On March 31, Tesla GigaFactory Berlin Brandenburg officially released a commemorative video, and Musk's awkward dance at the delivery site was revisited by us.
The production of Giga Berlin on March 22 and the delivery of the first 30 Model Ys are destined to become an important node in Tesla's history, and even an important node in the history of the automotive industry.
However, in this joyful atmosphere, the goal of 500,000 vehicles per year in the Berlin Gigafactory is a bit inadequate.
The construction of a 300-hectare factory, with the completion of 318 hectares of forest reconstruction, will also have to deal with the problems of animal habitat replacement and protests by environmentalists.
Tesla's fourth-largest overseas factory, which announced its location confirmation in 2019 and will not be put into use until 2022, has not caught up with the "Chinese speed" of the Shanghai gigafactory.
Can the Berlin factory run?
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In November 2016, when Tesla announced that it would build a new Gigafactory2 in Europe, a number of European countries, including the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Finland and so on, were trying to find a location for Tesla Gigafactory2.
The conditions are also very attractive, Finland and the Czech Republic have thrown olive branches to Tesla with rich lithium resources, and France has used the demolition and construction of abandoned nuclear power plants as a ready-made site selection...
But back in 2015, Germany had a discussion about the location of Tesla's Gigafactory 2.
In this fierce European country to compete for the location of Tesla's second overseas factory, Germany, which is the birthplace of the world's automobile, has the crystallization of advanced technology in the automotive industry and the largest economy in Europe, and finally became tesla's number one winning target.
The factory is located in brandenburg, Germany, 30 kilometers away from the Border of Berlin, because Gigafactory 2 has been requisitioned in advance by the New York factory, and finally the European factory is named Gigafactory Berlin Brandenburg, which we refer to as Giga Berlin.
In the Berlin factory on March 22, 2022, Musk personally delivered the first Tesla Model Y to users, and his joy was obvious to everyone.
It's just that Musk's awkward dance on the spot is simply reminiscent of the day of the delivery of the Shanghai Super Factory, but the stripping + ostrich dance posture is more energetic than in the Berlin factory, although the level of awkward dance has not improved at all.
However, compared with musk's cheerful atmosphere at the scene, the Berlin factory, which took more than 2 years from the beginning of field exploration to the delivery of production vehicles, was full of twists and turns in the entire construction process, and the original expectation of the Shanghai Gigafactory to be built in one year was already unrealistic.
On this 300-hectare site, Tesla's dream of pulling up a gigafactory a year is beautiful, but in front of local environmental organizations, this has become the highest threshold for the factory to catch up.
Brandenburg's implementation of the concept of environmental protection is a model in Germany, and the per capita green power generation is the highest in Germany.
As early as 2018, China's "Belt and Road" green industry project signed a cooperation agreement with Brandenburg enterprises, and it is the state's advanced technologies and products in green logistics and green energy.
But for Tesla, choosing a site in Brandenburg and eventually cutting down 300 hectares of forest would cost more than just recreating 318 hectares of forest.
In 2020, Tesla helped ants move homes, build bird nests for birds, and rebuild habitats for lizards, bats, snakes and other animals because of construction sites.
This series of operations has repeatedly delayed the construction of the Berlin factory, and the environmental groups have repeatedly marched on the streets to protest for reasons such as cutting trees and treating wastewater, and the Berlin factory has repeatedly fallen into the dilemma of stagnant construction.
In October of the same year, the main construction of the first plant spraying workshop of the Berlin factory was roughly completed, from the site selection confirmation to the complicated approval procedures and the obstruction of environmental protection organizations, the entire construction process of the Berlin factory was full of challenges.
But just in 2021, due to the new power battery production line in the Berlin factory, the approval procedures for the construction of the entire factory were forced to repeat the process.
Because in the relevant German regulations, the construction permit for the construction of the factory is only the first step, and any new construction links in the follow-up also require the corresponding approval procedures, and the construction of the factory does not mean that it can be put into production.
Even after the delivery ceremony of the Berlin factory on March 22, 2022, the environmental groups outside the factory still held protests over the protection of drinking water, and Tesla got into trouble in Germany during which the European factory was located in Germany.
But fortunately, Tesla finally got the production qualification and smoothly promoted the landing process of the "Desan" Model Y, but compared with the plan delivered in the fourth quarter of the Q1 financial report of 2021, it has been postponed for one quarter to March 22, 2022.
Compared with the bumpy history of the construction of the Berlin factory, the Shanghai factory began to achieve the delivery of the domestic Model 3 in one year, and each speed refresh is verifying the boldness of the new Chinese infrastructure demon, and there is no comparison between Berlin and Shanghai in the speed of factory construction.
According to the plan, the annual production capacity of the Berlin factory is 500,000 vehicles, and Musk hopes to produce 5,000 vehicles / week by the end of this year, or even reach 10,000 vehicles / week, but the current output is up to 700 vehicles / week.
The overseas media predict that the production capacity of the Berlin factory this year will be about 54,000 vehicles, and the annual output of 280,000 vehicles will be achieved by 2023, and the planned production capacity of 500,000 vehicles will have to wait until 2025.
Factors affecting the ramp-up of capacity in the Berlin factory may be a new problem that Tesla has to face. In August 2021, the Brandenburg government informed Tesla that its local water resources are limited, and if it wants to expand the Berlin factory, there may be many restrictions.
At present, the problem of water shortage has been used by environmental organizations as a reason for protest, including the impact of power battery production on environmental pollution, which is the external pressure facing Tesla.
In addition, the completion of the Berlin factory can bring 12,000 jobs to the local area, and it is Tesla's top priority to widely distribute job posts to pull people from other places into the factory, but things are still not going well.
Limited by the protection of workers by the German labor law, overtime, three shifts and other production models are doomed to be out of touch with the Berlin factory, and the work attitude of the Buddhist system is the right given to workers by the labor law, and the high status of the German trade union escorts the workers.
In 2021, Tesla was rumored to be paid 20% lower than other local car companies with collective labor wage contracts, and was once investigated by the German authorities for violating labor laws.
To solve the labor force, Tesla even bought a private railway and arranged a chauffeur-driven bus to pick up employees from neighboring countries.
However, the current dilemma is not only three days of environmental groups taking to the streets to protest, labor shortage has become the largest mud pond, compared to the Shanghai government for Tesla all the way to the green light, the Berlin factory all the way to the red light has become the norm.
Slow, but does not affect the entry of new processes
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But Tesla's ambitions are not limited to the immediate, at the Berlin factory delivery site, Musk reiterated the production target of 20 million vehicles by 2030, when there will be 10 super factories around the world to support.
In Musk's calculations, if there are 2 billion cars in the world by 2030, then the size of 20 million Teslas accounts for only 1% of the world, which is not out of reach for Tesla.
But you know, no car company in the world can reach the annual output of 20 million vehicles, even the world's best-selling Toyota Motor, in 2021 only sold 11.35 million vehicles.
At the end of 2021, the Austin Gigafactory in Texas will begin production of the Model Y, with an initial production capacity of 500,000 units, including the Fremont Gigafactory in California, the Shanghai Gigafactory and the Berlin Gigafactory, all with a capacity of 500,000 units, and the US plant is also being expanded.
In order to achieve the goal of 20 million vehicles by 2030, Tesla will look for new overseas super factories around the world, and the location of the second super factory has been rumored in China.
The Tesla blueprint that Musk wants to build is crazy, but the rhapsody has already sounded the prelude, and there are still 8 years left before the song is played, and this cowhide Musk is not small.
Of course, as the second overseas super factory, although the construction and production capacity of the Berlin factory have certain limitations in the early stage, the production process of the factory has maintained a high degree of innovation and advancement.
New color schemes with thirteen layers of paint coatings using a more sophisticated process, such as crimson and navy, will appear on the Model Y produced at the Berlin factory, including the one-piece die casting of the rear body, the 4680 battery cell, the CTC structure, etc.
However, the battery production line of the Berlin factory will not start until 2024 at the earliest, and the batteries assembled at the current Berlin factory are purchased from the Shanghai factory, and Panasonic provides 2170 batteries, with a weekly supply of up to 5000 cells.
If you want to assemble 4680 batteries this year, you can only import them from the Texas factory, and it is known that Tesla has produced 1 million 4680 batteries, which will be the first to be loaded on the Model Y.
Currently, the Berlin plant only produces the white and black Model Y, and both are high-performance versions, and when its production capacity reaches 400,000 units, it will allocate the remaining 100,000 vehicles to the Model 3.
This means that the current Model 3 in Europe is still being delivered from the Shanghai factory, while The Model 3 and Model Y exported from Shanghai in February reached 33,315 units.
If the production capacity of the first two months of each quarter is mainly exported, and the third month is mainly delivered to domestic users, then the Berlin factory can alleviate the problem of slow delivery of Chinese users to a certain extent in the pace of production model Y.
But it is only limited to the Model Y model, the delivery time of the Model 3 in the short term will not change much, and it is not ruled out that Tesla will transfer part of the production capacity vacated by the Model Y to the Model 3 for export.
The Berlin factory in Europe is no less important than the Shanghai factory in China, to know that in 2021 Tesla Model 3 has become the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe, directly into the global automotive industry hinterland, challenging the BBA.
Germany and the United Kingdom, in particular, account for 24.2% and 21.3% of Tesla sales in Europe, while Brandenburg has now become the largest industrial zone in East Germany since 1989, introducing Tesla, an automotive giant, and becoming one of germany's most important automotive centers.
Therefore, Tesla has initially completed the international market coverage of the four major factories in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, and this year' production line expansion at the Shanghai plant and the Two Factories in the United States should not be a big problem.
With the blessing of the new one-piece die casting and 4680 battery cell, the new process will also make the entire production process more efficient.