Factory photographed on 30 September 2023, after the opening. This derivative cover is distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0. MEHR8000, CC BY-SA 4.0. Image cropped and laid out for this cover.
Archive article written on 7 November 2026.
On 22 March 2022, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg celebrated the start of production in Grünheide, Brandenburg. For Tesla, it opened a new industrial phase in Europe: building cars on the continent as well as selling and delivering them.
A European factory for Model Y
Model Y was central to the start of operations. The attendance of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and minister Robert Habeck underlined the investment’s importance to the region and the changing German car industry.
The opening followed a permitting process separate from the ceremony. On 4 March, the state government had announced the factory’s permit, after construction carried out using advance-work approvals. The ribbon-cutting therefore did not by itself represent every step that had made the start possible.
From an opening ceremony to regular production
A plant closer to European customers added another element to Tesla’s international manufacturing network. That did not mean every configuration was already available locally or that the opening immediately guaranteed the planned full-scale output.
The next work involved ramping production, organising supplies and maintaining deliveries. The gap between opening and full operation is part of what makes Grünheide significant: a factory matters not only when it opens, but when it turns installed capacity into cars built consistently.
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