In the annual report for the second quarter of 2024, Tesla had stated an unchanged production capacity of 375,000 vehicles per year for Giga Berlin.
Various variants of the Model Y roll off the production line in Brandenburg, which are mainly delivered in Europe.
André Thierig, plant manager of the German Tesla factory, said this in an interview with the German Press Agency.
“We will not invest several billion in expanding the factory without the signals being very clear that the market is asking for it,” said Thierig. “We firmly believe that the market will pick up again. It is certainly a question of how quickly and when.”
Thierig confirms that right-hand drive models are now also being built in Brandenburg.
“Because we are now also serving the right-hand drive market in Great Britain and Ireland from Berlin, we have a larger sales market that we can access directly,” said the plant manager.
Thierig apparently did not respond to the rumors that the right-hand drive models from Grünheide could also be exported to India .
While production capacity is the aforementioned 375,000 vehicles per year, actual production is lower – currently estimated at around 250,000 cars per year.
In the future, Tesla wants to increase production to one million units in Grünheide. However, this will require an expansion of the current plant. This expansion is accompanied by protests.
This was also the case in May 2024 , when local representatives in Grünheide gave the green light for the construction of a freight station on the site.
To do this, the plant will be expanded to the east by 118 hectares – although 50 hectares of forest will have to be cleared for this. In the future, the new vehicles will be transported via the new freight station east of the plant. Up to now, this has been done by truck.
The municipality expects the station to significantly reduce traffic. Environmental alliances, on the other hand, see risks for the environment.
Critics of the plant expansion were disappointed by the decision and referred to the citizen survey in February: 62.1 percent of participants voted against the expansion.
Just two years after it was put into operation, the Tesla factory has become an important factor for local employment. According to the company, around 12,000 people currently work at Giga Berlin. When Tesla announced its global job cuts in the spring, its only European factory got off relatively lightly: only 400 jobs were cut in Grünheide.
