Brandenburg Minister of Economics Jörg Steinbach, as a visionary politician, has always welcomed Tesla in his region.
He said that he was very pleased when the company's CEO Elon Musk announced the location of the new plant. Nevertheless, due to the fact that Tesla had an ambitious schedule, Steinbach was excited that the automaker would not have time to clear the territory for the planned plant in the specified time.
"I constantly tell myself that I was happy with the basic decision on the whereabouts, but in reality I will be happy only when the first worker ordered by Tesla picks up a shovel to dig a construction hole."
Brandenburg's Minister of Economics ' Steinbach '
— @GF4Tesla..🏗️🏗️.build #GigaBerlin. (@Gf4Tesla) March 1, 2020
Expects the ground-breaking ceremony of #GigaBerlin in the 2nd half of March,👌 and he wishes that Elon will come, "that would be a strong sign for the region".👍@elonmusk , @joergstb https://t.co/3xBfbnaG80 pic.twitter.com/qudwDf4CHl
Steinbach recalls that on the morning of November 12, Musk personally inspected the area in Grünheide, and already in the afternoon he clarified everything with Steinbach. In the evening, he announced at the Golden Steering Wheel Award ceremony: "It will be Berlin!"
For several months, Steinbach supported Tesla and tried to help it as quickly as possible and according to the law to fulfill all the necessary requirements.
February was eventful: Tesla received permission to early clearance, but the very next day, two environmental organizations filed an urgent lawsuit with a motion to terminate it. A few days later, The Berlin-Brandenburg Supreme Administrative Court (OVG) rejected the lawsuit and workers continued to clean up the area.
Source:Tesla Kid Grünheide/Twitter
Tesla cleared about 90 hectares of pine forest for the first phase of construction. At the moment, excavators have almost finished tearing out stumps and leveling the ground. Workers are actively laying power lines to continue construction work.
"We expect a groundbreaking project to happen in the second half of March," Steinbach says in an interview with FAZ, “I would like Elon Musk to come back to Germany for this. This would be an important signal for the locals.”
Last week, the Mayor of Grünheide in Brandenburg Arne Christiani suggested that a ground-breaking ceremony could occur by the end of March. “It could be that the ground-breaking ceremony will take place at the end of March,” he told TeslaMag.
Brandenburg politicians are positive and expect the official ceremony to happen in March.
Featured image: b-tu.de
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
