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The construction of the electric car factory in Grünheide near Berlin is probably the most ambitious project of its kind that the German auto industry has ever seen.

A finished factory is to be built this summer on the area that was cleared a year ago.

But now Tesla boss Elon Musk has to admit: The goals were a little too ambitious.

In any case, the company apparently no longer assumes that production in Brandenburg can start in July as previously planned.

"We're building factories as fast as we can," Musk said on a conference call on the occasion of the company's first quarter results.

The two construction sites in Texas and near Berlin made good progress.

"We expect the start of limited production in these factories this year and volume production from Texas and Berlin next year." That means: Tesla cars made in Germany will only come onto the market next year.

There is currently no permit for the drainage of the factory

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Recently, there were indications that there could be further delays in Grünheide.

"Business Insider" (which, like WELT, belongs to Axel Springer SE) is now reporting on a 17-day construction freeze imposed by the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment at the end of March.

According to the report, work had to be suspended between March 26 and April 12, 2021 after Tesla previously violated applicable law.

The company has been laying sewage pipes three to four meters deep in the ground on the construction site for months - illegally, as there is currently no permit for the drainage of the factory.

According to "Business Insider" the officials of the green state environment minister Axel Vogel are currently examining the initiation of fine proceedings against Tesla.

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“The first car will roll off the assembly line when the final approval is available and the plant has been built,” said Brandenburg's Minister of Economics, Jörg Steinbach (SPD), to the dpa news agency.

"When the approval process will be completed, no specific date can be given here today - because the principle of quality over speed clearly applies here."

Tesla itself had tightened its tone with the authorities at the same time as the dispute with the Ministry of the Environment.

In a letter to the Berlin Higher Administrative Court, the company declared its solidarity with a lawsuit brought by Deutsche Umwelthilfe against the federal government, which wants to achieve the climate goals more quickly.

In the letter, the US group criticized German planning law and the slow approval process in detail and submitted a ten-point plan for improving processes in Germany.

As far as organization and project management are concerned, Tesla is now being criticized

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Among other things, he called for a central contact person for major projects in German authorities - which, however, already exists in the so-called “star procedure”, in which one authority acts on behalf of another.

In any case, Tesla can rely on being able to reach a contact person in the state government by mobile phone at almost any time.

As far as organization and project management are concerned, Tesla is now being criticized.

A construction site insider said a few days ago in an interview with WELT: "If Tesla would meet the requirements formulated in the letter for a central contact person, that is, had a project manager and planner on the construction site capable of making decisions, then we would be further."

On the part of politics, the Musk letter caused incomprehension, after all, the building in Brandenburg is considered a showcase project of accelerated action by the authorities.

“According to my observations, the authorities of the state of Brandenburg are doing everything they can to make the project a success.

This investment is extremely important for the country and the region, ”says the project insider, who does not want to be named.

Since Musk's decision to build a factory in the woods just outside Berlin, a task force with representatives from all the authorities involved and the company has met regularly in Potsdam.

Tesla is building its factory on the basis of preliminary permits and bears the legal risk completely itself. If parts of the settlement are not approved, the company must demolish the buildings at its own expense.

The problem with this process is the number of subsequent plan changes that Tesla made to its project during construction.

Do the plans have to be publicly displayed a third time?

"Tesla has submitted a number of applications that were not fully developed, so basically not approvable," criticizes the construction site insider.

“But they are still checked and processed in the authority.

That ties up capacities.

If amendments are then followed up, this ties up additional capacities ”.

That has little to do with the planning law criticized by Musk, "but with an immature project planning."

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The many changes last year had already meant that the plans had to be publicly displayed and discussed a second time.

It is currently controversial whether this could be necessary a third time.

Another public participation process would probably postpone the start of the factory by three months, Brandenburg's Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) already indicated in the state parliament.

So it would amount to October.

Two people die in an autonomous car

In the US state of Texas, a Tesla crashes into a tree and goes up in flames.

Both occupants are said to have completely relied on the Tesla autopilot.

Nobody was behind the wheel.

Source: WORLD

The approval for the battery cell factory that Tesla wants to build next to the car plant in Grünheide has not yet been applied for.

Musk left no doubt that this factory should be built.

"We have already ordered most of the equipment for battery production in Berlin, much of it for Austin," he said in the conference call.

Now his managers have to explain to the authorities and the public what the factory should look like.

The figures for the past first quarter show that Tesla has sufficient funds to build its plant in Germany and shoulder the risk of dismantling.

The company has $ 17.1 billion in its cash register and raised $ 1.3 billion in capital from January to March.

At the same time, Tesla was able to achieve an adjusted pre-tax profit of $ 1.8 billion.

Much of that, however, is profits from the enormous Bitcoin position the company has built - and $ 518 million in revenue from so-called regulatory loans.

Tesla collects this money from other car companies that are getting closer to their fleet targets for emissions in the USA and California through a “CO2 pool” with the electric car manufacturer.

Paying Tesla is cheaper than penalties for missing the fleet's targets.

In Europe, the US group forms such a pool with Fiat-Chrysler, which is now part of the Stellantis group.

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Frank Schwope, an analyst at NordLB, considers the Tesla share price to be “massively exaggerated” even in view of the new figures.

“You can almost get the impression that Tesla has two pillars: the sale of emission rights and the bitcoin trading.

The actually central pillar, the sale of cars, on the other hand, still does not make a great contribution to profits, ”he criticizes.

Bitcoin trading in particular makes the business model even more opaque.

With its pure auto business, Tesla claims it has achieved a margin of 5.7 percent.

That is well below the profit margins of competitors such as BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

These companies still have one thing ahead of the Californians: decades of experience in production.

"Production is tough, very tough," said Musk.

Above all on a large scale, with greater commitment and the goal of lower costs, it is "incredibly difficult".

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