In November 2019, Musk announced the establishment of the first European factory and design center near Berlin, which will be used to produce batteries, powertrains, and vehicles, including the Model 3 series.
By the end of May this year, Tesla had only obtained preliminary permits for foundation construction in Germany. But as of today, the roof structure of the drive unit plant has been formed, and it is expected that the Berlin Gigafactory will be completed and put into production in 2021. Currently, the construction speed has surpassed the Shanghai Gigafactory (Phase II) by nearly three months, and it is expected to be completed earlier than the Shanghai plant.
The Shanghai Gigafactory started construction on February 27, 2019. Phase I was completed on September 16, 2019, and commissioning started on October 15. Thanks to the strong support of the Chinese government, even though it was affected by the epidemic, the speed of building the Shanghai Gigafactory Phase II was hardly affected.
However, according to the current construction progress of the two sites, the “Berlin speed” will beat the “Shanghai speed”, and the Berlin Gigafactory will be able to achieve volume production of the European Model Y ahead of schedule.
With these two factories, there is no doubt that it will help Tesla’s global production.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.