Tesla eyes battery-cell production in Germany from 2027: report

[BERLIN] Tesla plans to launch battery-cell production at its plant outside Berlin as soon as 2027, German press agency DPA reported.

Elon Musk’s sole European electric vehicle (EV) factory in Grunheide is preparing to produce up to eight gigawatt-hours of cells annually, DPA reported on Tuesday (Dec 16), citing Tesla. It would mark a shift away from the current setup in which components are built in Germany but finished cells are imported from the US. The planned capacity could supply as many as 130,000 EVs a year.

The move would expand Tesla’s manufacturing footprint in Europe just as the European Union relaxes its policy for ramping up electric mobility. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, has decided to soften policies that would have effectively halted sales of new petrol and diesel-fuelled cars starting in 2035, offering carmakers more flexibility in the transition to cleaner transport after months of industry pressure.

Tesla is preparing to invest a nine-figure sum in the site to enable the plant’s existing infrastructure to bring full production online, adding to the multibillion-euro investment it has already made in Grunheide since its EV facility opened in 2022.

The EV maker told DPA that the entire battery chain could be centred in Grünheide “if conditions are right”, though it remains difficult to produce cells profitably in Europe amid stiff competition from Chinese and US manufacturers. Europe continues to trail China in the development of large-scale cell-production capacity.

Tesla’s European sales have slumped due to an ageing lineup and blowback over Musk’s politics, including his support for Germany’s far-right AfD party and activities in the Trump administration. The billionaire CEO and European regulators have also been at odds over the driver-assistance system Tesla markets as Full Self-Driving, or FSD. BLOOMBERG