Update on Tesla Giga Berlin and Giga Texas sites

In Germany, the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment has now granted permission for an early start to a further construction phase of the Giga Berlin plant. In the USA, construction on the Giga Texas site is progressing rapidly.

At the Grünheide site in Brandenburg, Germany, the permission now granted permits, among other things, the erection of driven piles as part of the foundations, which primarily affects environmental concerns with the groundwater.

At the same time, other permits have not yet been issued, which mean that Tesla is still building much of the plant at their own risk. Other issues yet to be solved involve noise and ground vibrations from the pile driving and its impact on local roads and railway lines, as well as fuelling procedures for the equipment so that chemicals do not leak into the groundwater.

Only yesterday we reported that the factory in Grünheide will manage with considerably fewer concrete piles in the groundwater than previously planned. Instead of the originally planned up to 15,000 piles, the concept could be changed so that 500 to 550 piles would be sufficient, according to a Tesla spokesman at the inauguration of Tesla Straße leading to the site. This way, only the pressing plant, but no longer the foundry would be founded on piles.

The Giga Berlin plant in Brandenburg is to be the site where Model Y for Europe will be built from 2021. Recently, it was also officially announced that Tesla would also manufacture battery cells at the site. In all probability, these will be the so-called Roadrunner cells, which Tesla is developing on its own.

Meanwhile, in the USA, the construction site for the Tesla factory in Texas is progressing at a phenomenal speed: foundation work can begin shortly as the first pile drivers have already arrived on the site. A YouTube video from Jeff Roberts shows how fast the site is progressing.

The Cyber truck, the Tesla Semi, the new Roadster, Model 3 for North America and the Model Y will all be produced at the Giga Texas plant when it is completed. “And of course Factory Day is coming up soon, and it will surprise people how much there is to see,” said CEO Elon Musk during the company’s Q2 financial results last month.

teslarati.com (Giga Berlin), brandenburg.de (permits in German), electrek.co, insideevs.com (both Giga Texas)