Tesla under pressure Declining sales and protests - three years of the Gigafactory in Berlin
The Tesla plant in Grünheide near Berlin is three years old. Sales in Germany are falling, but Tesla is still confident (archive image).
Image: dpa
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla opened its only plant in Europe three years ago - but is facing several challenges (archive image).
Image: dpa
The Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg was opened three years ago (archive image).
Image: dpa
Tesla's plant manager in Grünheide, André Thierig, is confident despite a decline in sales in Germany (archive image).
Image: dpa
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (l) attended the opening of the Tesla factory in Grünheide with company boss Elon Musk (archive photo).
Image: dpa
A protest camp against Tesla has been broken up by the police after almost nine months (archive photo).
Image: dpa
The Tesla plant in Grünheide near Berlin is three years old. Sales in Germany are falling, but Tesla is still confident (archive image).
Image: dpa
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla opened its only plant in Europe three years ago - but is facing several challenges (archive image).
Image: dpa
The Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg was opened three years ago (archive image).
Image: dpa
Tesla's plant manager in Grünheide, André Thierig, is confident despite a decline in sales in Germany (archive image).
Image: dpa
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (l) attended the opening of the Tesla factory in Grünheide with company boss Elon Musk (archive photo).
Image: dpa
A protest camp against Tesla has been broken up by the police after almost nine months (archive photo).
Image: dpa
The factory in Grünheide was opened three years ago. Tesla's new registrations are falling in Germany and criticism of company boss Musk is increasing. The plant manager is optimistic and explains why.
21.03.2025, 10:53
21.03.2025, 10:54
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Tesla is recording a sharp drop in sales in Germany, has slipped to third place in terms of new e-car registrations and is battling growing protests against Elon Musk.
- Environmental activists and trade unions are criticizing Tesla for water consumption, working conditions and the lack of a collective agreement.
- The company is focusing on increasing production and expansion.
- Experts see Tesla's lack of innovation and Musk's controversial political statements as possible reasons for the decline.
Three years after opening its factory in Grünheide near Berlin, the US electric car manufacturer Tesla is experiencing a decline in sales in Germany - at the same time, protests against company boss Elon Musk are on the rise.
Plant manager André Thierig is nevertheless confident. "We have continuously increased production in recent years and now supply 37 markets in and outside of Europe directly from the Gigafactory," Thierig told the German Press Agency. "More markets will be added in the future." There are currently no plans to reduce the workforce in Grünheide - 400 jobs would be lost in 2024.
The plant boss speaks of a "unique success story". "As the most modern car factory in Europe, we have been producing the Model Y in Brandenburg since 2022. Since then, we have created over 11,000 jobs," said Thierig.
Opening with the chancellor
At over 40,000 euros a year, the above-tariff starting salary is significantly higher than the average income in the region. Production has been expanded, Tesla relies on innovative processes and a wastewater treatment plant recycles up to 100 percent of the process wastewater.
Tesla boss Musk opened his Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg three years ago with a big show in front of hundreds of fans, even the Chancellor came. Tesla is the largest industrial employer in Brandenburg. Today, the opening seems to have fallen out of time. Not only because Olaf Scholz will soon no longer be chancellor.
Tesla is being slowed down in terms of new car registrations in Germany. Sales fell again in February, although more electric cars were put on the roads overall. And Musk's polarization and interference in the election campaign is causing growing protest.
Only third in new registrations in Germany
According to data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, 76.3 percent fewer Teslas were newly registered in Germany in February than in the same month last year, with 1429 units. In 2024 as a whole, the Tesla brand lost the most ground among e-cars and slipped from first to third place. However, the Model Y remained at the top of the newly registered e-models.
"The Model Y was the best-selling car in the world both in 2023 and last year," said Thierig. The model has been completely overhauled, not just a facelift, as critics say. After a brief interruption to production, manufacturing of the new Model Y began in February.
"It will of course take some time until we have ramped up to our usual production volume again," said the plant manager. It is only natural that there will be a short-term gap in registration figures during the changeover.
Expert: more innovation needed
Industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer does not expect the decline in sales to end quickly: "The models are not very innovative and are too expensive," Dudenhöffer told dpa. Tesla needs more innovations.
In his view, the car manufacturer is almost a one-model manufacturer with the Model Y. He also sees another negative reason: "Elon Musk has become a non-person. Then the Tesla brand suffers too."
Musk publicly campaigned for the AfD several times during the German parliamentary election campaign and had a conversation with AfD leader Alice Weidel on his online platform X. He also took part in an AfD election campaign event via video and, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp, criticized Germany for focusing "too much on past guilt".
Protest against Musk grows
A large picture of Musk on the façade of the Tesla factory in Grünheide caused a stir in January. It shows the tech billionaire making a gesture similar to the Hitler salute during the swearing-in ceremony of US President Donald Trump.
In February, an arson attack on a railroad line in Berlin-Schöneweide caused disruption to rail services. Four Teslas were allegedly set on fire in Berlin in March.
Around a year ago, there was already an attack on the power supply to the Tesla plant. As a result, car production was on hold for almost a week. In May, environmental activists then attempted to storm the Tesla site during protest days.
Environmentalists against Tesla over water
The opening three years ago was accompanied by fierce criticism from environmentalists. They accuse the car manufacturer of endangering water resources and oppose a previously planned expansion of the Tesla site involving the clearing of forest for a freight depot, among other things.
Tesla points out that water consumption has decreased and is lower than the industry average - and that the freight depot relieves the roads. There were accusations of a lack of occupational health and safety, which Tesla rejected.
After almost nine months, a protest camp in the forest near the Tesla factory was broken up in November. But the protest continues. On World Water Day - the third anniversary of Tesla's opening on March 22 - the alliance "Tesla den Hahn abdrehen" (Turn off the tap), among others, is calling for consistent water conservation by effectively protecting water bodies from pollution.
Union against Tesla
The Association for Nature and Landscape in Brandenburg - the citizens' initiative against Tesla - wants to award a new negative environmental prize "The Dirty Drop", which in this first year is to go half to the SPD Brandenburg (for the settlement of Tesla in a water protection area) and half to Tesla in Grünheide (for alleged endangerment of the water protection area).
Internally, a conflict is smouldering with the IG Metall trade union. According to the union, Tesla often questions employees' sick notes retroactively as a first step, wrote the Handelsblatt. Tesla replies that there are around a dozen cases.
Tesla rejects a collective agreement. At a works meeting in Grünheide on Thursday, IG Metall presented Tesla with a petition with around 3,000 signatures calling for longer breaks, more staff and more respect.
Tesla presented the results of an internal online survey of around 11,000 employees, in which around 7,500 took part. Almost 80 percent were satisfied with their workplace, 5 percent said they were negative, the rest were neutral.
