Tesla officially receives environmental approval to produce 500,000 EVs at Gigafactory Berlin, but the battle is not over

Tesla has officially received environmental approval to start production at Gigafactory Berlin – which was expected as we reported earlier this week – but also as expected, there are a few caveats that will prevent Tesla from officially starting production.

The battle is not over.

After months of delays, German reports stated earlier this week that Tesla was expected to finally receive final environmental approval to start production at Gigafactory Berlin later this week. The environmental approval for the giant factory faced a lot of opposition with concerns ranging from deforestation to water supply and more.

There were several setbacks for Tesla that prevented the company from securing the approval, which has been believed to be the last regulatory step needed to start production.

Yesterday, we shared that a German newspaper reported that Tesla already secured the approval and that a press conference with more details would come on Friday – they also warned that it might not allow Tesla to start production as previously believed.

Today, the details have been released along with a 536-page conditional building permit, but the word “conditional” is important here – there are about 400 conditions that Tesla needs to fulfill in order to start production.

The automaker said that it plans to cover all of them within the next two weeks; however, there are some things that appear to be on a different timeline, like another notice of public objection, which is going to be published for two weeks and then comments will be accepted for a month:

The approval notice will shortly be published in the official gazette for the state of Brandenburg, in the local daily newspapers and on the internet. The notice of approval is available for two weeks from the day of publication in the municipality of Grünheide (Mark), the town of Erkner, the office of Spreenhagen and at the administrative headquarters of the Oder-Spree district in Beeskow, as well as in the State Office for the Environment in Frankfurt (Oder). inspection off. The period of one month during which objections to the approval can be raised begins with the end of the exhibition . At the same time, the approval notice is published on the Internet on the EIA portal of the state of Brandenburg, where it can be viewed until the end of the objection period.

However, Tesla and German officials don’t seem to think this should delay the start of production.

The documents reveal that Tesla is approved to produce 500,000 electric vehicles per year at Gigafactory Berlin, along with several other production processes approved, including battery cell production. They also reveal that Tesla has already hired about 3,000 workers at the plant.

While the battle to start production at Gigafactory Berlin is not over, it looks like Tesla is in the home stretch.

To put in perspective just how mammoth an endeavor this is, German officials disclose that the application documents – expert opinions and statements – comprise more than 23,700 pages in 66 files.