Elon Musk announced plans to build Giga Berlin in November 2019 while in Germany receiving the Autobild Golden Wheel award. Since then construction has moved ahead at a rapid pace, despite setbacks from protests by environmental groups and even hibernating snakes & lizards.
Tesla has never given a specific date that it plans to have the factory up and running. There have been some rough timelines provided, like the Design Studio showing production of the Model Y would begin in “mid-2021”.
They were even less specific in their Q3 2020 update, where they only said “production is expected to start in 2021.”
Earlier today Tesla sent a letter to German authorities criticizing what it called an “irritating” permit approval process that still sees Giga Berlin without its final permit. Within the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Drive Tesla, the automaker has finally revealed a more specific date, saying it plans to have Giga Berlin operational by July 2021 (translated from German).
“Tesla hopes to complete construction of the facility and have it operational by July 2021, creating approximately 12,000 on-site jobs and initially providing an anticipated production capacity of 500,000 electric cars per year.”
This timeline matches what we told you in February when a Tesla employee reportedly informed Germany’s railway operator that full production would begin in July or August.
As Tesla mentions in their letter, Giga Berlin will have a production capacity of 500,000 vehicles per year. The first cars expected off the production line will be the Model Y with the structural battery pack and new 4680 cells. Tesla is building a massive battery manufacturing facility at Giga Berlin with an initial production rate of 100 gigawatt hours per year.
