A report from Germany claims the plant in Grünheide will get its final approval later this week. The final approval for Tesla’s Giga Berlin factory in Germany is due by the end of this week, with an official opening scheduled for March 22 or 23.
According to the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke’s “Task Force Tesla” met last Tuesday to debate the factory’s final permission. The meeting apparently lasted about 20 minutes, but the outcomes were clear: all obstacles to Tesla’s electric vehicle factory’s launch had been eliminated.
As a result, preparations for the grand opening of Gigafactory Berlin are well underway. The official opening is set for March 22, according to the same source, though it could be pushed back a day to March 23. The latter is the date on which Brandenburg state police are said to have been planning a larger event to celebrate the start of operations in Grünheide.
The event, which is Germany’s largest industrial and energy transition initiative, is expected to gather a large number of local and federal government officials. The police are reportedly preparing for a 500-person event, which will include Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other top executives.
The official opening of Giga Berlin will reportedly include the handover of the first production Model Y to customers, similar to the grand opening of Giga Shanghai. Customers are expecting to receive the first 30 Model Y crossovers built in Germany.
Tesla built Giga Berlin’s first phase at its own risk, dependent on more than 20 temporary approvals. Many pre-production vehicles have been built at the plant, but it is not allowed to sell them to customers. Drone flyovers of the factory have shown hundreds of vehicles parked on the premises, with some Tesla supporters estimating that over 1,000 pre-production Model Ys have been built out of the 2,000 units the company was permitted to produce.
It’s also worth noting that the big opening will take place shortly after Germany’s strict Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, which could help make the event more memorable.