Tesla's German Gigafactory still on track for December opening

Ever since Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the building of the carmaker's fourth Gigafactory near Berlin toward the end of 2019, his plans have been viewed by many as a declaration of war against Germany's top three auto manufacturing groups — Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler with its Mercedes brand.

Apart from planting top-notch electric vehicle know-how in the heart of Europe's carmaking industry, Tesla has also aspired to show the local competition that a huge plant could be built in record time.

Tesla says it's only Germany's red tape that has kept Giga Berlin from opening. The company had to delay the start of its Model Y production there one more time after the State Office for the Environment in Brandenburg decided to repeat the procedure for an online discussion on objections by locals to and complaints about the huge plant in their neighborhood.

The debate had originally become necessary after Tesla confirmed that besides building its car-producing unit, it would also build a huge battery cell production plant on the same premises in Grünheide near Berlin. The final round of discussion ended on Monday, November 22.

Tesla has almost completed its Gigafactory on the basis of a string of preliminary permits, but it still lacks a final operating permit from the regional environmental authorities.

So far, the Brandenburg authorities have not released any details on just how long they would take to evaluate the objections raised by local residents and come up with their final approval (or rejection which is largely considered to be highly unlikely). Experts believe, though, that the plant could start operating as soon as December or early January at the latest.

Since the start of the project, Tesla has been faced with a number of environmental concerns, including the logging of forest areas and more importantly, the tricky question of where to get enough water from in a region that has been plagued by years of dry summers, seeing ground water levels recede considerably.

At a recent "County Fair" that Tesla organized for 9,000 local residents, the carmaker allowed a sneak peek of its production facility. It was also meant to win over skeptics of the project. While visitors reported they were deeply impressed by the top-notch technology on display inside Giga Berlin, environmental concerns just wouldn't fade away.

In what is Tesla's first Gigafactory in Europe, the US firm wants to eventually produce half a million fully electric cars per year, thus topping the combined output of EVs from all German manufacturers. The company has said it will employ up to 12,000 people, but only few are expected to be hired from places near the plant.

The Teslarati online portal providing information and rumors about the latest developments at the iconic US carmaker has recently suggested that trial production activities are already in full swing at the factory in Grünheide.

It said on its website that "during a recent flyover of the massive Grünheide site, several Tesla Model Y units that seemed to have been produced in the facility were spotted rolling out of Gigafactory Berlin — the all-electric crossovers then proceeded to head over to the site's test track."

The portal admitted, though that "while the Model Y units seemed to have been produced in the Gigafactory Berlin complex, there is also a chance that the vehicles were just used to calibrate the production equipment that has long been set up in the facility."

Be that as it may, Giga Berlin seems only days or weeks away from its official inauguration. The company hasn't provided any insights yet into how many of the cars to be produced there will actually be meant for the German market itself.