I want to tell you a story.

The name of this story is 《Oh my God, it's too difficult to build a Tesla factory in Germany.》

In 2017, Tesla Model 3 was mass-produced, ending the era of Tesla's crazy money-burning and non-profitability.

In the following two years, huge production pressure has been plagued Tesla.

If the production capacity is not increased, the profit will not be increased.

Because it burned too much money when doing research and development in the past, Tesla's debt interest was an astronomical figure every day.

If the profit cannot cover the interest, then Tesla will be in a state of continuous loss.

So the wonders in human history appeared.

On the one hand, product supply is in short supply, on the other hand, Tesla’s capital chain is on the verge of collapse and may fall into a debt crisis at any time.

As long as the production capacity can be increased, all problems will be solved, but the production capacity cannot be increased.

In 2018, Musk came to China and tried to use China's speed to build a super factory to expand production capacity for Tesla.

In just three months, Musk had reached an agreement with Shanghai.

Shanghai provided Tesla with a huge piece of land at a price of 10% for the construction of a factory, and at the same time provided 18.5 billion yuan in loans for Tesla, which is in short supply, with an annualized interest rate as low as 3.9%.

These two conditions are equivalent to sending money to Tesla, but Shanghai is not losing money.

Because Musk promised in the agreement that starting from 2023, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory will pay no less than RMB 2.23 billion in taxes to China every year, otherwise Tesla will return the land.

After signing the agreement, Musk learned what China speed is.

In October 2018, the agreement was officially signed.

In December 2018, all land has been leveled and all construction units have entered the site.

In January 2019, Tesla's Shanghai Factory officially started construction.

In November 2019, the Tesla Shanghai Factory was completed and all equipment was installed in place.

One month after commissioning, the assembly line was officially launched, and the entire factory began to run wildly.

From the signing of the agreement to the completion of the factory, it took only one year, of which the construction period was only 10 months, far less than the 2-year construction period planned by Musk.

This is simply a miracle.

Since the sale of the first car at Tesla's Shanghai factory, Tesla's profits have exceeded interest expenses, and Tesla no longer has the pressure to break the capital chain.

To celebrate this historic moment, Musk even danced happily in public.

The Chinese factory is the first overseas super factory set up by Tesla, and it helped Musk solve a huge problem.

After a person tastes the sweetness, the first reaction is of course to copy his own past success.

Therefore, Musk decided to build a second overseas super factory.

This time, he chose Germany, the center of European automobile manufacturing.

Then, he was slapped in the face severely.

In November 2019, the month when Tesla's Shanghai factory was fully completed, Musk announced that it would build a super factory in Germany.

The site is located in Grunheide in Brandenburg, eastern Germany, only 24 miles from Berlin.

The government officials of Brandenburg welcome Tesla very much, because it will bring huge taxes and tens of thousands of job opportunities to the local area.

It can also bring hundreds of thousands of related jobs through the industry chain.

The benefits are too much. So they sold a 300 hectare plot of land to Tesla.

China built the Tesla Gigafactory in just 10 months?

Brandenburg State Minister of Economic Affairs Jörg Steinbach said:

"The Tesla team here is determined to beat the team in China, in a few weeks."

It seems that everything is developing in a better direction.

As a result, Musk did not expect that this was the beginning of a nightmare.

The land that Tesla took was ordinary, but it was not abandoned, and some artificial economic forests were planted on it.

After acquiring the land, first level the ground, that is, cut down these economic forests, and then cause trouble.

Environmentalists immediately came out to protest and took Tesla to court, saying that these trees cannot be cut down.

The man-made economic forest is also forest.

How could Tesla cut it casually? This is a serious damage to the local ecological environment.

After repeated negotiations, Tesla promised to replant more than three times the economic forest in other places, and finally settled the matter.

Then can the land be leveled?

Of course not.

Environmentalists also found that the Tesla Gigafactory consumes about 3.6 million cubic meters of water each year, which accounts for 30% of the local water supply.

Therefore, environmentalists say that the establishment of the Tesla factory will seriously consume the local water reserves.

And held a protest demonstration on January 18.

It seems that Tesla uses a lot of water, but there are actually only 8,700 residents in the area, and the Tesla factory alone has 12,000 employees in production.

Using 30% of the water does not seem excessive.

Not to mention that this is production water, not domestic water.

On the contrary, those 8,700 residents want 70% of the water, which I personally think is a bit too much.

But it doesn't make sense, because the topic of water resources is regarded by some local political parties as an excellent opportunity to get the attention and votes, and they don't care whether Tesla is dead or not.

Christian Rechholz, chairman of the German Eco-Democratic Party, delivered a speech in various media, claiming that he was very disappointed with the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology:

"This confirms our biggest worry. Now there are even more land that will be poured with concrete without submitting an application. Tesla is trying to realize its own interests at the expense of European taxpayers. The protection of water, people, and nature is slowly disappearing like the rule of law!” “How can Peter Altmaier (the current German Minister of Economy) ignore the concerns of Brandenburg citizens about drinking water and nature reserves and let this family American companies have once again "temporarily started construction" at their own risk? We should not forget that their electric car factory has not yet obtained the final construction permit." "With the addition of the world's largest battery factory, Brandon Fort and Berlin will eventually become dry land. You cannot simply sacrifice our precious drinking water for profit. This huge fanaticism is threatening people and nature."

In short, some ordinary German citizens who have not even graduated from high school think that the chairman of the German Ecological Democratic Party is a good person, and sincerely considers the future of Germany, he must be voted for next time.

As a result, the voice of anti-Tesla became louder.

What to do?

After repeated negotiations, Tesla promised to reduce its water consumption.

Can you start work then?

Of course it still can't.

Environmentalists also claimed that the woods cut down by Tesla is a habitat for bats.

January 2020 is the hibernation season for them.

They should not be disturbed, otherwise they will die in large numbers. After the hibernation is over, the bats will enter the mating season, and then breed babies, so it can't be disturbed. You need to wait for the bat babies to grow up before cutting down the woods to give them time to move.

There is no way to negotiate this, and Tesla will blamed as a cold-blooded butcher in everything it says.

Therefore, Tesla urgently hired the German environmental protection agency to conduct a species survey on the entire forest area.

The investigation report showed that there were only 2 bats in the entire forest area.

Therefore, Tesla claims that the construction of the factory will not cause any particularly serious impact.

On February 13, 2020, Tesla felt that he had done everything, and started logging wood and preparing to build a factory.

Then, environmentalists found in the species survey list that there are wolves, lizards, and even ants in this area, all of which must be protected.

Yes, Tesla must properly relocate the ant colony in this woods as required.

In short, environmentalists will never allow Tesla to completely clean up this forest, but after repeated negotiations and efforts, first level a small part of the land, and leave the rest to be negotiated later.

In April 2020, the first small piece of land was finally leveled.

The Tesla German team, which claimed to surpass the Chinese team, took a full 5 months to complete the land leveling step and leveled only part of the land. Dear, can we start?

Of course it is still not possible, because Tesla has to wait for construction permits.

The Tesla German team expects to obtain the construction permit in 7 months, and they will do their best to achieve this goal.

The reason why we have to wait so long is because the establishment of the Tesla factory is a political achievement for some government officials, but it is a source of trouble for some government officials. No one wants to get in trouble for Tesla.

For example, the Brandenburg State Department of Agriculture requires Tesla to use a special material during construction to protect groundwater sources.

Regarding the issue of groundwater protection, it took Tesla a month and a half to obtain the construction permit.

For example, the German environmental protection department believes that the vibration of the pile driver may affect the surrounding railways during the construction of the Tesla factory.

Therefore, Tesla must provide a safe construction plan and submit it for review.

This item took another month. There are also various construction permit approvals, and Tesla needs to meet the requirements of various government departments.

In short, by November 2020, Tesla, which took 7 months to go through the formalities, still has not obtained all the construction permits, and was forced to postpone the start date.

On December 7, 2020, when the remaining construction permits had not yet been obtained, environmentalists again found a hibernating snake underground in Tesla's woodland. . .

Oh my god, it's pretty good.

How can I interfere with Master Snake's hibernation in order to build a broken factory?

You have to wait for the end of Snake's hibernation to start work.

On December 8, 2020, the environmental protection organization received an emergency construction prohibition order from the court. . .

As a result, Tesla's dream of building a factory shattered again, although it was still a blank place as of December.

On February 21, 2021, Lord Snake finally woke up.

The head of Tesla's German team was almost crying with excitement, so he ordered logging as soon as possible.

but. . .

In April 2021, the Water Authority discovered that some of Tesla's water pipes had been installed without permission, and ordered Tesla to suspend work for rectification.

In May 2021, the German regulatory agency found that the construction permit for the 4680 battery production line at the Tesla factory lacked a so-called permit that can be used as a power battery, and ordered Tesla to apply for a special permit.

In June 2021, the environmental protection organization protested and suspected that Tesla could not control the toxic gas generated during construction. The environmental protection department asked Tesla to explain this and stop work for rectification.

In July 2021, someone found some so-called chemical cans that were exposed at the Tesla construction site. This thing was not on the application documents and had not been approved by the government. So work was suspended, fined, and rectification ordered.

The reason why it is so easy to stop Tesla’s work is because Tesla has not obtained a complete construction permit until today, and various approvals have not been completed.

The Tesla German team has only obtained temporary construction permits for many activities.

Therefore, any government department can stop the construction progress of the Tesla Gigafactory.

In July of this year, Musk had set the latest completion date for the factory. （And just to apply for an environmental protection permit, the thickness of the information reaches as much as 11,000 pages.）

As a result, Tesla's German factory was still seriously delayed.

From the beginning of land acquisition in November 2019, to July 2021, a total of 20 months have passed.

Not to mention the completion, Tesla has not yet obtained the official construction permit from the German government!

Tesla sneakily engaged in a small project, and barely covered the building shell, but the inside was completely empty.

It is really too difficult to build a Tesla factory in Germany.