Freienbrink – You come by car, of course. Most of the fans who want to go to the big festival of the electric car manufacturer Tesla don’t come by train. Though Tesla asked for it. You are after all car fans. And so cars roll incessantly from the Berliner Ring at the Freienbrink exit. And then they drive through the very spacious industrial area to find a parking space. Tesla has rented parking spaces from all sorts of other companies there.
The fans came because Elon Musk invited to a kind of folk festival and a tour of the gigantic factory called Gigafactory 4, which was literally tamped out of the Märkischen sand within 20 months.
Many try without a ticket
Two young men from Cottbus run from the parking lot to the gate. “We don’t have any tickets, we’ll just give it a try, if not, we’ll just continue to Berlin.” You won’t get through the tough admission controls. The tickets were sent in advance. Only 9000 guests are allowed to be on the premises at any one time. Allegedly there were several hundred thousand interested parties.
There are five Tesla models in front of the gate. Eckart John asks a Tesla employee: “What does it cost?” The answer: “100,000 euros.” John says in the best Brandenburg tone: “I would have bought it by the way if you’d let me in.” The 66- Year old has traveled with his wife from Ludwigsfelde. A large part of the route is by bike. “We thought, ‘Open Day’ means we’re all allowed in.” He says that he made W50 trucks in Ludwigsfelde during the GDR era. “We wanted to see what the future of the car could look like. Since we are not allowed to, we are now going to the water, into nature. “
The protest has gathered in front of the gate: On a caravan it says: “Stop Tesla, save our groundwater.” And “Stop the overexploitation of nature and groundwater.”
dpa / Patrick Pleul
There were also Teslas for the children to test.
The critics of the largest industrial settlement in East Germany hand out leaflets. “The factory is almost completely located in a water protection area,” says Manuela Hoyer from the citizens’ initiative. Then she says that Elon is allowed to build Musk, but her neighbor has been forbidden to add a small extension to the house – because of the water protection area. For their protest, they also have to be insulted by Tesla fans: Since they are against this location for the production of e-cars, they are accused of being defenders of the outdated diesel technology. “We are slandered as environmental opponents just because we tell the visitors what kind of environmental crime is happening here,” says the 61-year-old.
From 0 to 100 in five seconds
A ferris wheel is turning inside. There are rides for children who can throw darts at balloons. There is a straw bale track that the children can ride through with mini Teslas. There are stalls, benches and beer. Music is booming from the pit towers.
From 0 to 100 in five seconds. Hundreds of people are standing in line for this, which is more than 200 meters long. They wait patiently until they can get into a Tesla, then the driver says: “Warning! Hold on. ”He accelerates. Everyone is pushed into their seats by the acceleration. After five seconds, the display shows the pace 101.
After getting out, the tour of the factory begins. “We want to show the neighborhood and the Tesla community what we have created here. We want to make a difference in the world, ”says one employee. “The more cars we build, the more conventional cars can disappear from the streets. We are proud and want to show that the production is not sooty, dirty and smelly. “
AFP / Adam Berry
Opponents protest in front of the gate against the fact that the factory may be built in a water protection area.
It all began for the public on November 12, 2019. At that time, the bustling billionaire Elon Musk received the Golden Steering Wheel in Berlin and announced: We are building our first European production facility in Brandenburg. The Gigafactory is being built on an industrial park at the Freienbrink motorway exit. In early 2020, Tesla will buy a 300-acre pine plantation from the land for an estimated 41 million euros, cut the trees and begin construction. Estimated construction cost: just over a billion euros.
Starting this summer, 12,000 employees there should actually produce around 500,000 Model Y vehicles per year in three-shift operation. But in April Tesla announced: The start will be postponed until the end of the year. There is still no final building permit.
It is currently only a “sham production”
Inside, in the up to 24-meter-high, 700-meter-long halls, production is already underway. There are already around 1000 employees on the site, but everything is just a “sham production” for the time being. The robot arms rotate, reaching into space, as if they were taking a fender and attaching it. New production lines and robots are being built everywhere. Most of the production will be automated, but a lot of employees will be needed.
500,000 cars per year means that a finished car rolls off the assembly line every 45 seconds. From the robot’s first “handshake” to the completion of the quality control, each individual car runs through the production lines for ten hours. There are press shops and assemblies and paint shops. The individual departments are called “Shops” in Tesla’s parlance. In the assembly hall you can see how a new part is attached step by step from a substructure of each robot – unit price: 15,000 euros. A fender there, a door there, a hood there. When the body is almost finished, a giant yellow robotic arm grabs the car and lifts it to the next floor. The technical designation: FNL250RB01 is on the large yellow part. “But everyone just calls him Godzilla,” says one employee. “There’s only one robot here that is just as big, it’s called King Kong.”
Everything here is big, airy and light. Gigantic. That fits with the great aspiration of Elon Musk, who wants to revolutionize the world of the car. Here are two meter high and 100 meter long walls made of aluminum bars, which are melted down here in the foundry. Here are walls full of boxes filled with components.
dpa / Patrick Pleul
In the halls, the arms still reach into space. The production lines are still being built. Cars may be built by the end of the year.
“We hope that we can start production at the end of the year,” says one employee. “But that all depends on the final approval, which we don’t have yet.”
Almost at the end of the tour, pens are waiting for visitors to write on long white walls. Most of them are fans: “Wonderful, Elon!” Wrote Linda in blue. There it says in red: “Hello future.” Someone wrote in black: “Please leave some water for us.” And someone wrote in green: “Diesel forever”. Ramona and Wolli noted: “We got married today.”
At the end of the tour are the five Tesla models. Christian Padberg already has one. The 57-year-old came especially from near Hanover. “In a Tesla with four people.” He used to drive a Porsche and has now been a Tesla since the beginning of 2020. “I’m excited. Total. ”Like all fans, the businessman is very familiar with the technology and the history of the company. “I dealt with e-mobility for a long time before I switched. I would also have liked to have taken a model from a German manufacturer, but Tesla is further. ”Now he looks at everything:“ I want to see how my next car is built here. ”
And at the end of the party, shortly after 6 p.m., Elon Musk also comes. He goes on stage and tries it in German and reads: “Renewable energies and electromobility need exponential growth.” A bit bumpy, but then almost flawless. The crowds in front of the stage cheer. “We are happy to open the doors and show you what we have been working on over the last few months.” The support from Grünheide and all of Germany is “super impressive”. He describes Germany as magical. And actions are more important than words. There are far too few things that inspire people every day. “We want to inspire you with what we do,” says Elon Musk: “Production should start in November or December.” Then he said: “The party is for you. Do rambazamba for the rest of the evening. Berlin-Brandenburg rocks. “
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