All posts tagged: Gigafactory

Protesters Break Fence, Swarm Tesla Gigafactory

Protesters Break Fence, Swarm Tesla Gigafactory

Published by skeptic

“Companies like Tesla are there to save the car industry, they’re not there to save the climate.” Car Swarm A truly strange scene played out in the dusty grounds of a German Tesla Gigafactory on Friday when a swarm of masked protesters broke down a fence and tried to breach a factory building, Wired reports. The mob, many wearing black and seemingly trying to do a mass Naruto run, were at the factory grounds near Berlin to protest the company’s unpopular expansion plans, which includes mowing down 250 acres of forest, according to CNBC. Police told CNBC that protesters have been camping near the factory since Monday, culminating in the fence breach and blocking roads. Police arrested multiple demonstrators, some of whom sustained injuries during the breach and clash with law enforcement. Tesla told staff to stay home on Friday, calling the temporary factory closure a “one-day planned production shutdown.” Factory Goods The protests sprang up after locals expressed displeasure at Tesla expansion plans at 60 percent in a February poll, according to Wired. Since then, …

Climate Protestors Storm Tesla’s Gigafactory in Europe

Climate Protestors Storm Tesla’s Gigafactory in Europe

Published by skeptic

Protesters charged onto Tesla’s factory site near Berlin on Friday, as part of a five-day demonstration against the carmaker’s local expansion plans. Footage on social media showed crowds of black-clad protesters on Tesla premises and running towards one of the site’s buildings. “800 people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende, spokesperson for the group Disrupt Tesla, told WIRED. She added activists were now on their way to a disused airfield which German media recently reported Tesla was using to store thousands of unsold cars. “They want to prevent the expansion of the factory,” Mende said of the protesters. “Several people are trying to gain unauthorized access to the Tesla factory premises,” the local police said on X, at around midday local time. “We are working to prevent this.” Mende claimed arrests had been made but did not know how many. Neither the police nor Tesla immediately replied to WIRED’s request for comment. “We here from the forest have witnessed how the protesters broke through police lines to get onto the factory grounds,” …

Tesla announces 4-day shutdown of Gigafactory Berlin due to protests

Tesla announces 4-day shutdown of Gigafactory Berlin due to protests

Published by skeptic

Tesla announced that it will be shutting down Gigafactory Berlin for four days, but it is unclear if it has to or if it wants to. Last quarter, Tesla had to shut down and reduce production at Gigafactory Berlin for very serious reasons. The former was due to an arson attack from so-called environmentalists, and the latter was due to supply chain issues related to the Red Sea conflict. While Tesla couldn’t do much to avoid those issues, some analysts suggested that it was convenient for the automaker as it was reducing production capacity due to lower sales anyway. Now, Tesla is again announcing a shutdown of Gigafactory Berlin. Environmentalist groups who have been protesting Tesla’s expansion of Gigafactory Berlin have announced planned protests this week at the plant. In response, Tesla told employees not to come to the factory after the Wednesday night shift (via Handelsblatt – translated from German): Because of the announced multi-day protests against the Tesla expansion in Grünheide, the electric car manufacturer is sending all employees to work from home on Friday. Tesla shared thisthe workforce …

Tesla skirts Austin’s environmental rules at Texas gigafactory

Tesla skirts Austin’s environmental rules at Texas gigafactory

Published by skeptic

Tesla has used a new Texas state law to exempt its Austin gigafactory from Austin’s environmental regulations, as reported by Austin Business Journal. Tesla’s Texas gigafactory is commonly referred to as being in Austin, but it is actually situated not far outside the city’s official borders. This is technically part of Austin’s “extraterritorial jurisdiction” (ETJ) an area around the city which doesn’t technically belong to the city, but which the city can still exercise some control over the development of. Due to the large amount of unincorporated land in Texas, and its growing population causing cities to tend to sprawl outward, it is prudent for some cities to help plan the areas immediately outside their limits, so that infrastructure can be compatible if the city later grows to encompass those areas. This is why Texas and some other Western states have ETJ laws. But, last year, the Texas legislature passed a law, SB 2038, allowing developments to remove themselves from these ETJs relatively easily. Earlier this year, Tesla filed a petition to remove itself from …

Tesla heads are rolling over critical projects at Gigafactory Texas

Tesla heads are rolling over critical projects at Gigafactory Texas

Published by skeptic

While Tesla is conducting broader layoffs, Electrek is learning that heads are rolling at Tesla over specific critical projects at Gigafactory Texas. Tesla announced today that it is laying off over 10% of its workforce. The automaker is again using “hiring inefficiencies due to rapid growth” as the reason for the layoffs. However, Electrek is learning that Tesla is also using this round of layoffs to clean house on some projects in Austin, Texas. We previously reported that Tesla’s SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, Drew Baglino, left the company today. Baglino was leading many engineering projects at Tesla, including the 4680 battery cell production and the cathode factory at Gigafactory Texas in Austin. Those two projects have seen serious delays. Sources familiar with the matter have told Electrek that Tesla has also let go of Anthony Thurston, Senior Manager of Cathode Materials & Manufacturing at Tesla, who was reporting to Baglino regarding the cathode factory project. A person familiar with the project described it to Electrek as “a financial black hole.” Tesla cathode factory …

Daily EV Recap: Gigafactory India might be in the works

Daily EV Recap: Gigafactory India might be in the works

Published by skeptic

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they’re available. Stories we discuss in this episode (with links): Tesla Cybertruck teardown shows battery pack is ‘half empty’ and we are confused Geely just unveiled the Panda Kart mini EV and it’s sporty cute Elon Musk is rumored to go to India, sparking speculation of Tesla factory announcement Hyundai IONIQ 5 N to compete at Pikes Peak hoping to set record SUV crossover climb times Tesla reveals humanoid robot technology through new patents Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Spotify TuneIn Share your thoughts! Drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!  Add Electrek to …

Chinese EV battery manufacturer to invest £1bn in UK gigafactory

Chinese EV battery manufacturer to invest £1bn in UK gigafactory

Published by skeptic

Reports suggest that major Chinese EV battery developer EVE Energy is set to invest over £1.2bn in building the largest UK gigafactory. First reported in the Sunday Times, the significant investment from the Guangdong-based battery maker into a UK gigafactory would help elevate the country as a leading player in the battery production landscape. EVE Energy has reportedly written a letter to UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt outlining the details of the multi-billion pound commitment. The company began construction of its first gigafactory in November, based in Debrecen, Hungary, and is now looking to widen its portfolio. Where will the gigafactory be based? The reported gigafactory will be located in the West Midlands, on the outskirts of Coventry and will be a sizeable 5.7 million square feet. The West Midlands gigafactory is slated to be integrated into the UK Centre of Electrification initiative. This project is a collaborative effort between regional councils and the proprietors of Coventry Airport, which will serve as the site for the factory’s construction. Following planned expansion, the gigafactory will be almost twice …

Tesla to bring electric semi truck production to Gigafactory Berlin

Tesla to bring electric semi truck production to Gigafactory Berlin

Published by skeptic

Elon Musk says that Tesla will bring Tesla Semi, its electric semi truck, to production at Gigafactory Berlin. However, it will be important to start volume production in the US first. The CEO attended the reopening of Gigafactory Berlin after it had to shut down for just over a week following an arson attack that crippled its power supply. Tesla is currently only making the Model Y at Gigafactory Berlin. Local German media are reporting that Musk mentioned at the event that Tesla is looking to build Tesla Semi at the factory: “I think it makes sense to produce the Tesla Semi in Europe in Gigafactory Berlin.” The CEO didn’t offer a timeline for the project. The automaker had yet to announce a new vehicle program beyond Model Y for the factory. There’s probably a lot of work to be done before it can get there. Tesla Semi is currently only in low-volume production at a facility outside Gigafactory Nevada. In January 2023,  Tesla announced a massive expansion of Gigafactory Nevada to add production of Tesla …

Tesla restarts production at Gigafactory Berlin after arson attack

Tesla restarts production at Gigafactory Berlin after arson attack

Published by skeptic

Tesla announced that it restarted production at Gigafactory Berlin today after an arson attack killed the power at the factory earlier this month. Earlier this month, we reported on Tesla having to shut down Gigafactory Berlin after some people set a high voltage pylon on fire, which killed the factory’s power supply. It was beleived that a group of environmentalists who have been targeting Tesla were behind the attack, which has since been confirmed. At the time, it wasn’t clear how long it would take for Tesla to relaunch production as the damage to the power supply were significant. Today, Tesla announced that it was able to restart Model Y production at the plant: CEO Elon Musk aslo visited the factory today to thank workers for the help in rapidly ramping production back up after the shut down. Tesla has been dealings with efforts from so-called environmentalists to shut down its expansion project at Gigafactory Berlin. They claim to have concerns about Tesla’s deforestation of the forrest around the factory for the expansion and the …

Analyst Sees “One-Time Production Disruptions” Hitting Tesla After Eco-Terrorist Attack On Gigafactory

Analyst Sees “One-Time Production Disruptions” Hitting Tesla After Eco-Terrorist Attack On Gigafactory

Published by skeptic

One must consider whether the radical left-wing eco-terrorist group that attacked the German power grid on Tuesday to paralyze Tesla’s Gigafactory near Berlin, genuinely aims to save the planet through the shuttering of the plant, or if adversaries of Elon Musk orchestrated this attack to thrust Tesla into turmoil. Bloomberg reported that the attack suspended Model Y utility vehicle production at the Gigafactory plant in Gruenheide, Germany, for the second day. The factory turns out an average of 6,000 Model Ys per week, which might lead to lower vehicle delivery expectations for the current quarter.  In a note to clients this morning, Ben Kallo, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, highlighted the need to adjust the automaker’s vehicle deliveries lower for the quarter. He forecasted that Tesla would deliver around 421,100 vehicles in the first quarter, roughly 67,900 less than the Wall Street consensus.  Kallo, who turned bearish on the stock in late January, said, “A series of one-time production disruptions have added further complexity to the setup” for the first quarter.  Source: Bloomberg  Compounding troubles for Tesla …