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Tesla finally gets green light to start production in Germany
After getting snarled up in German red tape, US electric car pioneer Tesla got the final go-ahead from authorities Friday.
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In this file photo taken on May 17, 2021 the construction site for the new plant, the so-called 'Giga Factory', of US electric carmaker Tesla is pictured in Gruenheide near Berlin, northeastern Germany. (AFP/Odd Andersen)
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fter getting snarled up in German red tape, US electric car pioneer Tesla got the final go-ahead from authorities Friday, paving the way for production to begin shortly at its "gigafactory" outside Berlin.
Officials in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where the factory sits, issued the final approval for the company's first production site in Europe.
The green light was "a big day for Brandenburg, a big step into the future" state leader Dietmar Woidke told a press conference, adding that the approval process had been a "mammoth task".
Brandenburg, formerly part of communist east Germany, is hoping for a job boost from the new factory and has profiled itself as a hub for the production of electric vehicles.
Based in Gruenheide, to the southeast of Berlin, the project was announced with much fanfare in November 2019 and warmly received by politicians in a country proud of its car-making tradition.
The plant, which is slated to produce 500,000 vehicles a year, followed an expedited approval process, and was allowed to begin construction before receiving the final planning permission.
But the US manufacturer's early momentum was broken by a series of legal and administrative difficulties, in part prompted by angry locals with concerns over the environmental impact of the site.
