On Tuesday, Tesla’s $5.5 billion German gigafactory located in Grunheide near Berlin opened its doors and started shipping electric vehicles.
As Reuters reports, the first 30 Model Y Performance configuration vehicles produced at the factory are being delivered to customers Tuesday. Both Elon Musk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend the official launch event for the new production facility, which is expected to bring 12,000 new jobs to the area. So far, Tesla has filled 3,000 of those roles.
Tweeting Monday, Musk said he was, “excited to hand over the first production cars made by Giga Berlin-Brandenburg tomorrow!”
The new gigafactory may be a huge positive for the local economy, but is sure to concern German car manufacturers such as Volkswagen and Mercedes. Tesla intends to produce 500,000 electric vehicles per year in Grunheide, where as Volkswagen only managed to sell 450,000 EVs globally last year. Tesla’s production will ramp up slowly, though, and isn’t expected to reach 500,000 until 2025.
Musk had hoped to have the new gigafactory start producing vehicles by November last year, but Tesla required permission from the German authorities to do so. However, it took until March 4 this year for that permission to be given following several demands involving meeting environmental conditions.
