Tesla getting ready to start Model Y production in Europe soon

It has only been 14 months since Tesla broke ground at Gigafactory Berlin, but the company is hoping to get the first vehicles rolling off the production line in only a few months.

The project was expected to take longer than Gigafactory Shangai, due to slower-moving bureaucracy in Europe, with Tesla initially optimistically targetting July 2021.

That date has of course passed, but today during a tour of the site with Armin Laschet, Germany’s conservative party candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor,  Musk said that the new target is October :

“We’re looking forward to hopefully getting the approval to make the first cars maybe in October if we are fortunate,”

Tesla is starting production with the Tesla Model Y, which Musk said he expects to be even more popular than the Tesla Model 3.

To inaugurate the factory, Tesla is holding a county fair at the site.

Giga Berlin-Brandenburg county fair & factory tour on 9 October!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2021

This is presumably to win over locals sceptical regarding the impact of the factory on their local environment.

While Europe is waiting for locally produced Teslas, the company is currently importing Made-in-China EVs to meet the burgeoning demand in the continent.

via Electrek