The Gigafactory in Grunheide, near Berlin, is essential to Tesla’s expansion into Europe. The US manufacturer’s plant is currently aiming to produce 500,000 Tesla Model Ys, but the goal is to produce twice that, or 1 million cars per year. However, this would mean doubling water consumption at a time when current production is already reaching the limits of what the local public water supply can provide. So Tesla plans to tap other water sources to support its production. This angered both the water companies and the local authorities.
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dangerous precedent
Tesla’s approach is to conduct exploratory drilling near the Gigafactory in Grünheide to find new exploitable water sources and update old public data. While the authorities are not opposed to such an operation in principle, they point out that if Tesla finds a new water source — or several — the brand will still need to apply and obtain a license to operate it.
Moreover, the fact that a private company is conducting such tests rather than local authorities is unorthodox and the latter – along with some politicians and environmental groups – fear this could set a legal precedent for private companies to take over public data collection. In addition, there is a significant risk that Tesla will demand priority access to the resources it has discovered – to the detriment of the public interest. In neighboring Märkish-Oderland, an administrator stated that “water is a public good, and exploration is a public task… it is a frontier.” [die niet mag worden overschreden.]”
What about the staff?
But before Tesla can double its annual production and find more water, it will first have to solve business problems. The American manufacturer has it Difficulty finding and retaining enough employees. Between very strict working conditions and lower hours and wages than those of comparable companies in the region, Tesla has a German mentality very different from that of the United States.
