Tesla moves to expand Gigafactory Berlin on new 250-acre land

Tesla has started to officially move to expand Gigafactory Berlin on a new 250-acre lot with the submission of the construction plan to the municipality.

The automaker has just started production at the factory, and it is still having issues ramping things up, but that’s not stopping the company from already expanding the plant.

Tesla has ambitious plans for Gigafactory Berlin that includes more vertical integration to limit its exposure to supply chain issues and a ramp-up of vehicle production to eventually 1 million units.

As we reported earlier this month, Tesla has been looking to acquire a 100-hectare (~250 acres) parcel of land next to its existing property at Gigafactory Berlin. The factory currently sits on about 300 hectares that Tesla acquired for the giant manufacturing project already constructed over the last few years.

Now local paper RBB reports that the expansion has officially started this week with the submission of the expansion application with the municipality (translated from German):

The planned expansion of the Tesla plant in Grünheide (Oder-Spree) officially started on Wednesday. According to rbb information, the US electrical manufacturer is planning to expand its area in the east by around 100 hectares. However, the development plan (B plan) for this area must be changed for this. The US electric car manufacturer Tesla has now submitted an application, as the mayor of Grünheide, Arne Christiani (independent), confirmed: “The municipality of Grünheide has submitted an application to initiate a B plan procedure in the immediate vicinity of the current 300 hectares get a big B plan.”

The council is expected to weigh in on the matter as soon as next week, and if we are to believe the mayor, it sounds like it’s going to be a formality and the expansion should move ahead.

However, he believes that not unlike the first phase of the project, the official approval is likely to take about a year. In the meantime, Tesla is still working on ramping up Model Y production at the factory, but we hear that there are still some major bottlenecks, especially in the new paint shop.