Tesla continues construction work at Gigafactory Berlin, drone video reveals size of 1st phase

Tesla is continuing construction work at Gigafactory Berlin despite the current coronavirus pandemic, and a new drone video reveals the size of the first phase as Tesla starts leveling for the foundation of the building.

As we reported earlier this month, Tesla withdrew its US employees working on Gigafactory Berlin over coronavirus concerns.

German media reported at the time that it might affect the timeline of the construction of the factory — Tesla’s first full-scale factory in Europe.

The automaker was planning to start construction of the first building this month and be ready to start production by July 21.

It appears that work is still moving along at the site of the project, which sits on a 300-hectare plot of land next to the GVZ Berlin-Ost Freienbrink industrial park.

Tesla Kid Grünheide on YouTube posted a new drone video of the site taken on March 21, and it shows a lot of active construction work:

Tesla appears to be working on leveling the ground where it will build the first phase of the Gigafactory Berlin building.

It gives us an idea of the size of the first phase:

Last year, plans for Tesla Gigafactory Berlin leaked, revealing details about each section of the planned factory:

Here are all the different sections (translated from German):

1. Battery and drive manufacturing
2. Manufacture of the seats
3. Final assembly
4. Paint shop
5. Central supply building
6. High-bay warehouse
7. Wastewater treatment
8. Body construction
9. Plastics production, press shop, and foundry
10. New railway station
11. Test track
12. Delivery and collection — a separate railway facility is being built for the transport
13. Workplace parking

Musk said that Tesla will build “batteries, powertrains, and vehicles, starting with Model Y” at Gigafactory Berlin in Germany.

The first phase is expected to focus on Model Y production.

Electrek’s Take

The actual start of building construction was planned to start this month and Elon was supposed to attend.

With the impact of the coronavirus, it’s not clear if that’s still the case, but it is encouraging that work is still ongoing at the site.

As it stands right now, I think there’s a good chance that they stay on schedule, but the timeline was aggressive in the first place before the coronavirus crisis. So we will see.