Tesla’s fourth electric car factory under construction near Berlin, Germany, could end up hiring four times the staff currently employed at Fremont in the US, with eight Giga Presses stamping out parts for the Model Y.
The Californian EV maker has plans to produce 500,000 electric vehicles at the Grünheide site starting from the European summer of 2021, and Tesla boss Elon Musk has previously stated that the Model Y electric crossover will be a priority at the plant.
Musk said during a visit to Berlin last week that the Tesla Model Y’s “core technology” will be radically redesigned for production at “Giga Berlin” as it is otherwise known.
It is already made at Fremont using a single rear-piece casting made using a Giga Press, which is basically a massive stamping machine that improves efficiency of production, as well as enabling the end product to be lighter and therefore also more energy efficient.
Musk said in August that as many as 70 individual pieces would be replaced by die casting, and as The Driven reported in August, Tesla has already ordered at least two machines.
Now, reports have emerged that there are eight of these die casting machines, called “druckguss-machine” in German, planned for Giga Berlin.
A factory plan shared by German Tesla watcher Tobias Lindh shows footings for eight die cast machines including holding tanks, quenching tanks and melting furnaces, that will be used to make eight Model Y castings at a time.
And as many as 40,000 staff could be employed at Giga Berlin over the next ten years, four times that employed currently at Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y factory in Fremont as stated on the company’s website.
It is so many staff that Brandenburg’s economics minister Jörg Steinbach told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that skilled workers may need to be brought in to meet demand for staff at the factory, which he says should be fully approved by mid-December.
“In perspective, the Tesla factory in Grünheide could – depending on the market ramp-up – have up to 40,000 employees,” Steinbach was quoted as saying via the Berliner Morgenpost.
“We will not be able to meet the need for skilled workers from Brandenburg alone.”
“When the approval for the entire project comes, is closely related to the development plan procedure. Both should be signed and sealed in mid-December,” Steinbach was quoted as saying.
Elon Musk tweeted on Friday morning encouraging people to apply for jobs with Tesla in Germany.
“Please work at Tesla Giga Berlin! It will be great fun!!” he said in German.
Initially, Tesla was planning to hire 12,000 staff, although more recent reports state that filings in July indicate 10,500 staff are currently being hired to work three around-the-clock shifts.
Tesla has also launched a 250kW V3 supercharger at a research campus in Berlin on Thursday, Reuters reports, and has plans to introduce more soon to help make the purchasing decision easier for those concerned about access to fast-charging.
The V3 supercharger allows Tesla owners to recharge their electric vehicles at a rate of 120 kilometres a minute, as long as they have the relevant maximum charging rate activated on their vehicles.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.