Tesla Berlin Gigafactory stalls, reportedly has to revise foundation due to soil issue

Construction at Tesla Berlin Gigafactory has reportedly stalled due to a need to revise the foundation because of the soil.

As we reported last 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 Gigafactory Berlin — 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.

A few weeks later, a drone video showed that construction work was 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.

Now German media are reporting that Tesla ran into another issue that might result in a delay — though the local government and Tesla believe that they can stick to their timeline.

PNN reports that Tesla found that the soil where they planned on building the foundation of the factory is sandy, and now they have to come up with a new type of foundation:

They reportedly have to update their application with the local government with the new foundation (translated from German):

Brandenburg’s Department of the Environment had previously confirmed at the request of this newspaper that, at the request of the US company, the application for early approval for the laying of the foundations would be put on hold and ‘put on hold.’ This is because of necessary corrections to the approval application for the factory. The pile foundations now intended by Tesla for the foundation ‘are not included in the application dated December 20, 2019 for approval to build a Tesla factory,’ said the Ministry of the Environment. Tesla has announced that it will ‘submit changed documents.’

According to the report, the changes are apparently not simple.

The Ministry of the Environment told PNN that they are going to have to go through the regulatory process again:

‘Clearly, there will be a public hearing.’

Tesla CEO Elon 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.

Today, Musk linked the release of the Tesla Model Y release in Europe to the start of production at Gigafactory Berlin.