Under police protection, the local council in Grünheide has given the green light for the Tesla-Plans to build a freight station were given. Eleven of the 19 local council members voted for the corresponding development plan on Thursday, six voted no, and there were two abstentions. This allows the US electric car manufacturer to clear forest in order to build a train station to transport the vehicles and other logistics facilities. Tesla explained that the development plan that has now been approved creates the planning conditions for greater use of rail. “This is part of Tesla’s medium and long-term plans.”
The community representatives met under police protection. In the multi-purpose hall, where the local council has been meeting on Tesla topics for a long time, the meeting was lively and loud for long periods. Around 200 people came to observe the meeting – including many citizens from Grünheide, but also some Tesla opponents, some of whom had traveled by train from Berlin. It got loud again and again when Tesla opponents and supporters of Tesla’s plans fought a war of words, and the local council chairwoman Pamela Eichmann repeatedly called for order.
Immediately before the event began, several younger Tesla opponents sang a song about water. In front of the hall, demonstrators held up posters that read “People over Profit” or “Turn off the tap from Tesla.” They criticized the fact that the freight station should be built in the drinking water protection area and that the forest should be cleared for it. Manu Hoyer, chairwoman of the Association for Nature and Landscape, announced before the local council’s vote that she would take legal action against the development plan. In the local council, the AfD rejected the expansion of the factory site.
Almost two thirds of the citizens of Grünheide had the previous expansion plans the car manufacturer rejected in a survey in February. However, the citizens’ vote was not binding. Tesla had assured that it would address the concerns of the public. The development plan was revised and Tesla reduced the originally planned expansion area. Instead of more than 100 hectares, around 50 hectares of forest are now to be cleared. From the point of view of Tesla and Grünheide’s mayor Arne Christiani (independent), the planned works station can relieve freight traffic on the roads.
Tesla is planning to build a freight station through which the vehicles manufactured in Grünheide will be transported away. A Tesla representative said at the local council meeting that Tesla could also transport one million vehicles per year by road, “but we don’t want to do that, we want to do it by rail.” The factory in Grünheide can currently build 500,000 vehicles annually. The approval process is ongoing to create the conditions for doubling capacity, he said.
The freight station is to be built east of the Tesla factory on an area where a pine forest is currently growing. The development plan that has now been decided has nothing to do with the expansion of production. The necessary facilities are to be built on the areas that have already been cleared. However, it is unclear what will happen next with these plans. Most recently Tesla boss Elon Musk (52) cut thousands of jobs worldwide due to weaker demand for electric cars. The But job cuts also affect hundreds of jobs in the factory in Grünheide. Tesla has been producing electric cars in the community of Grünheide, which has a population of 9,200, southeast of Berlin, for around two years. Around 12,000 employees work at the plant.