To The Moon

Tesla: Elon Musk opens delayed 'gigafactory' in Berlin

Tesla boss Elon Musk has opened a huge electric car "gigafactory" near Berlin which is the first European hub for the firm.

The plant was delayed for eight months after local authority licensing problems.

The more than €5bn (£4bn) factory is the biggest investment in a German car plant in recent history.

Tesla said more than 3,000 of the factory's expected 12,000 workers had been hired so far.

Mr Musk said: "This is a great day for the factory," describing it as "another step in the direction of a sustainable future".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the plant was a sign of progress and the future of the car industry.

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Tesla will deliver its first 30 German-made Model Y Performance cars on Tuesday. The firm says the cars have a 514km (320 mile) range and cost €63,990 (£53,000).

At full capacity, the plant will produce 500,000 cars annually - more than the 450,000 battery-electric vehicles that German rival Volkswagen sold globally in 2021.

It will also make batteries at an annual rate of 50 gigawatt hours (GWh), surpassing all other plants Germany.

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For now, Volkswagen still holds the upper hand in Europe's electric vehicle market, with a 25% market share to Tesla's 13%.

Mr Musk has said ramping up production will take longer than the two years it took to build the plant.

Tesla received the final go-ahead from local authorities on 4 March to begin production, provided it met several conditions, covering issues such as water use and air pollution control.

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The carmaker had come close to losing its water supply contract when local environmental groups filed a complaint against the environmental ministry challenging the licence it granted to Tesla's water supplier.