Brandenburg grants Tesla yet another partial approval

The Brandenburg State Office for the Environment has granted Tesla permission to start installing final assembly equipment at the Giga Berlin factory in Grünheide ahead of schedule. It is not the first advance approval allowing work inside the factory.

This involves equipment “for the assembly of interior fittings, cockpit, assembly of chassis, engine, among other things”, as the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment (MLUK) writes on Twitter. As Tesla remains committed to starting production before the end of the year, as Elon Musk emphasised during his visit to the construction site this week, the installation of the facilities for final assembly is another important intermediate step.

Because with final assembly installed, Tesla could already start test production of the Model Y – which is also permitted before final approval has been granted. However, these vehicles would probably not be sold.

As the German press agency, the DPA writes, this is the 13th early approval overall. According to the ministry, a further application for approval of the early start for testing the operational capability of individual plant components in the paint shop and press shop is still being examined.

Ten days ago, Tesla had received another pre-approval for the construction of a large hall. However, Tesla is not allowed to use the warehouse in connection with car production. Tesla applied separately to the state government for the building permit for the warehouse. If it were used as part of the car production, it would also have to be part of the approval process for the car factory, which, however, is located at the state environment ministry. Thus, according to the current permits, the hall would not even be allowed to store components for car production.

teslarati.com, twitter.com, automobilwoche.de (in German)