German government to fund Tesla battery cell plant with 1.14 billion euros

The U.S. electric manufacturer can count on government funding of almost 1.14 billion euros for the Gigafactory battery cell plant in Grünheide. 2,000 jobs are at stake.

Tesla's new battery factory in Germany, which will be added to the Gigafactory for e-cars in Grünheide near Berlin, is expected to create significantly more jobs than previously known. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI), led by Peter Altmaier (CDU), considers, as it stated in response to a question in the Tagesspiegel, "a figure of 2,000 or more jobs in the battery area of the plant in Grünheide to be realistic, given product and production success."

This figure alone raises eyebrows, since the ministry has been negotiating with the company for months about funding. Publicly, there has so far been talk of around 1000 jobs planned at the "world's largest battery factory" announced by Elon Musk, in addition to the 12,000 jobs for the first expansion stage of the Tesla car plant. It is designed for an annual production of 500,000 vehicles of the Y model series.

It fits in with this that, according to Tagesspiegel reports, Tesla's billion-dollar investment in the new battery cell plant in Grünheide is also significantly higher than known. According to Musk's announcements, a new generation of more powerful and environmentally friendly battery cells will be produced there. They are expected to significantly increase the range of the vehicles. Tesla itself has so far remained silent on the figures. The relevant passages in the application for approval for the battery plant, which was recently made public, have been blacked out.

In its August 2021 monthly publication "Schlaglichter der Wirtschaftspolitik," the German Federal Ministry of Economics puts the investment volume for Tesla's battery cell production in Grünheide at "approximately 5 billion euros." This dimension would also be a plausible explanation for the fact that, according to information from the Tagesspiegel, Tesla is to receive government funding of 1.135 billion euros for the battery cell plant in Grünheide from the BMWI's second European Battery Cell Program (IPCEI).