Tesla appears to be set to begin construction of Gigafactory Berlin, with site preparation for the enormous facility now completed. Service roads have already been built to provide access to the 300 ha site, which cost the company €40m. Construction was expected to get underway in March but the pandemic crisis as well as issues with the soil led to delays, though the company says it’s confident that new Model Y cars will begin rolling off the assembly lines by next July. Tesla will also be building batteries and powertrains at the site. CEO Elon Musk recently got into a media battle over his insistence on opening his plant in California despite continuing lockdown regulations banning car production there. He threatened to move the factory to Texas if authorities didn’t let him open the factory. Although he ended up opening the factory anyway, an arrangement has since been agreed to that will allow production to get underway legally.
