Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, will officially open Tesla’s first manufacturing facility in Europe today, as the company plans to ease the pressure off its other factories in the US and China.
Musk will open the new Giga Berlin (or Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg) plant in Grunheide, a coal town in Brandenburg, Germany.
However, Tesla predicts the Berlin factory will produce up to 500,000 vehicles every year.
In November 2019, Musk had announced plans to build a car plant in Germany, noting that German engineering is outstanding which is part of the reason why the automaker located Gigafactory Europe in Germany.
German authorities gave Tesla conditional approval to commence production on March 4.
Tesla had, however, intended to start production of vehicles by early summer of 2021, but the Covid pandemic, supply chain complications, and clashes with environmentalists slowed its progress.
It has also been reported that Tesla has been struggling to keep up with demand and there are reported lengthy delays for Model Ys and certain Model 3s in different parts of the world.
Last week, Tesla had to temporarily shut down production at its Shanghai plant due to Covid-19 cases resurgent in China. That limited production of made-in-China Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for at least two days.
Meanwhile, Tesla has been exporting cars from China to customers in Europe.
