Germany – Federal Government Wants To Support Tesla Battery Cell Plant With 1.14 Billion Euros.
The US electrical manufacturer can expect state funding of almost 1.14 billion euros for the Germany – Federal government wants to support Tesla battery cell plant with 1.14 billion eurosbattery cell plant of the Gigafactory in Grünheide. It’s about 2000 jobs.
Tesla’s new battery factory in Germany, which will be used to expand the Gigafactory for electric 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 explained on Tagesspiegel’s request, “a number of 2000 or more jobs in the battery sector of the plant in Grünheide to be realistic if the product and production are successful”.
Even this figure makes you sit up and take notice, as the ministry has been negotiating with the company for months about a subsidy. So far, there has been public talk of around 1,000 jobs planned in 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 is fitting that, according to Tagesspiegel research, Tesla’s billion-euro 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 intended to significantly increase the range of the vehicles. Tesla itself has so far kept a low profile on the numbers. In the permit application for the battery plant, which was recently publicly available, the corresponding passages are blacked out.
In its monthly publication “Schlaglichter der Wirtschaftspolitik” (Highlights of Economic Policy) from August 2021, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy estimates the investment volume for Tesla’s battery cell production in Grünheide at “approx. 5 billion euros”.
This dimension would also be a plausible explanation for the fact that Tesla is to receive state funding of 1.135 billion euros from the BMWI’s second European Battery Cell Program (IPCEI) for the battery cell plant in Grünheide, according to Tagesspiegel information.
No official confirmation yet for the amount of Tesla funding
According to Tagesspiegel information, this 1.135 billion euro subsidy for Tesla by the BMWI is coordinated with all parties involved and ready for approval. This would mean that one third of the current, now second German IPCEI total program (volume 2.9 billion euros) would flow to Tesla. With this programme, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy supports innovative battery cell projects by 11 companies in Germany.
[If you want to have the latest news from Berlin, Germany and the world live on your mobile phone, we recommend our app, which you can download here for Apple and Android devices.]However, there is no official confirmation of the amount of Tesla funding yet. The process is not yet complete, according to the BMWI. And “before the grant decision is submitted”, no information on the amount of funding could be provided. “The delivery of the decision is currently being prepared intensively and is planned for the 4th quarter of 2021,” the ministry said.
Altmaier: “Up to 15 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030”
The five billion sum in the BMWI publication is explained by the ministry as an “estimate of the total prospective investment” through the accompanying research to the funding program. According to the target set by Elon Musk, the cell plant in Grünheide is to have a capacity of over 100 GWh in the long term.
Just a few days ago, Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) handed over an IPCEI approval notice in the amount of 437 million euros for a battery cell plant of the car manufacturer Opel in Kaiserslautern, the companies involved are investing around 2 billion euros in the factory. This funding rate in the ratio of about 1:4.5 fits the orders of magnitude planned for Tesla in Grünheide.
With the program, Europe and Germany want to achieve technological independence and promote climate-neutral mobility, Tesla is considered a technology leader. “We will see 14 to 15 million electric vehicles on the roads in Germany by 2030. There are one million,” said Altmaier at the cheque handover in Kaiserslautern.
The development is proceeding faster than planned. He also mentioned there that Elon Musk wanted to build “a large battery cell gigafactory in Grünheide”. As reported, the US electric car manufacturer has already applied for pre-registrationin order to accelerate construction as it did with the Auto Gigafactory – even before the final environmental approval.
German government wants to support Tesla battery cell plant with 1.14 billion euros, September 5, 2021
