Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Berlin, Germany over the weekend to check on the progress at Giga Berlin.
During a visit to the construction site on Monday, Musk was asked by local media how the new factory was coming along. The CEO seemed happy despite still not having a final permit in place.
“I think we’re making pretty good progress. You can see for yourself we’ve made a lot of progress, things are moving, so far so good,” Musk said.
Musk was also asked the question everyone is wondering, when will cars begin rolling off the production line. Tesla had originally hoped to have the factory open by July, but a recent change to the automaker’s application means that date is likely no longer possible.
Musk confirmed this, saying he still expects it to begin this year.
“I think it should be roughly end of this year. It’s hard to predict with precision cause you can only make the cars when all of the pieces are here. It’s hard to ship a car that’s 99% complete. It looks like we’re able to start production end of this year,” Musk said.
Following Tesla’s 10-page letter criticizing the amount of bureaucracy in receiving their final approvals, Musk took a more measured approach today, but reiterated that there is too much red tape in the country, and the rules appear “immortal.”
“There should be some kind of active process for removal of rules. Otherwise, over time, the rules will just accumulate and you get more and more rules until eventually you can’t do anything,” Musk said.
You can watch Musk’s comments in the video below.
@Gf4Tesla After a busy day inspecting progress at @Tesla #GigaBerlin Elon came out to greet #Tesla fans. @Teslarati @TeslaMotorsClub @teslamag pic.twitter.com/vADitYQN1y
— Rico Zig (@RicoZig) May 17, 2021
