Elon Musk, center, and Olaf Scholz, left, attend the start of production at the Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22. Photographer: Christian Marquardt/Pool/Getty Images
Almost 19 years after its founding, Tesla Inc. has a car factory network that spans the globe.
The leading electric-vehicle maker officially opened its plant outside Berlin on Tuesday, handing over the first 30 Model Ys to customers in front of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk followed through on his promise to dance as he did when Tesla opened its Shanghai factory two years ago.
Tesla shares rose a sixth consecutive day, surging as much as 6.8% to $984 and pushing the company’s market capitalization back above $1 trillion.
The 5 billion-euro ($5.5 billion) facility -- first announced in late 2019 -- will boost Tesla’s capacity to make electric sport utility vehicles as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up fuel costs and adds momentum to already-soaring EV demand. The question for Musk, 50, is how quickly the company can ramp up output in the midst of industrywide supply chain challenges, including shortages of semiconductors and battery metals.
“The start of production is nice, but volume production is the hard part,” Musk said during a visit to the plant construction site in October. He said then that Tesla would target making 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles a week by the end of this year.
Tesla’s plant in Gruenheide is essential to Musk capturing more of Europe’s expanding EV market. He tweeted last week that he was working on a new “master plan” for the carmaker and wrote Monday that “scaling to extreme size” would be a main subject.
That number is set to grow by a few thousand over the coming months, Tesla said in an emailed statement. The company expects to eventually employ 12,000 people once full vehicle production is underway alongside a 50 gigawatt-hour battery-making operation.
“We have to get behind progress that’s driving new technologies, because that’s how we’ll get new jobs,” Scholz said in remarks prepared for a speech at the facility. Bloomberg - link - Monica Raymunt - link - more like this (Germany) - link - more like this (electric cars) - link - more like this (Tesla) - link
The leading electric-vehicle maker officially opened its plant outside Berlin on Tuesday, handing over the first 30 Model Ys to customers in front of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk followed through on his promise to dance as he did when Tesla opened its Shanghai factory two years ago.
Tesla shares rose a sixth consecutive day, surging as much as 6.8% to $984 and pushing the company’s market capitalization back above $1 trillion.
The 5 billion-euro ($5.5 billion) facility -- first announced in late 2019 -- will boost Tesla’s capacity to make electric sport utility vehicles as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up fuel costs and adds momentum to already-soaring EV demand. The question for Musk, 50, is how quickly the company can ramp up output in the midst of industrywide supply chain challenges, including shortages of semiconductors and battery metals.
“The start of production is nice, but volume production is the hard part,” Musk said during a visit to the plant construction site in October. He said then that Tesla would target making 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles a week by the end of this year.
Tesla’s plant in Gruenheide is essential to Musk capturing more of Europe’s expanding EV market. He tweeted last week that he was working on a new “master plan” for the carmaker and wrote Monday that “scaling to extreme size” would be a main subject.
That number is set to grow by a few thousand over the coming months, Tesla said in an emailed statement. The company expects to eventually employ 12,000 people once full vehicle production is underway alongside a 50 gigawatt-hour battery-making operation.
“We have to get behind progress that’s driving new technologies, because that’s how we’ll get new jobs,” Scholz said in remarks prepared for a speech at the facility. Bloomberg - link - Monica Raymunt - link - more like this (Germany) - link - more like this (electric cars) - link - more like this (Tesla) - link
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