Sharjah24 – AFP: After getting snarled up in German red tape, US electric car pioneer Tesla at last 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 positioned itself as a hub for the production of electric vehicles.
"The future is very exciting!" Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in a German-language tweet.
Also on Friday, German car giant Volkswagen announced a 2 billion euro ($2.2 billion) investment in a purpose-built electric plant of its own, set to break ground at its main Wolfsburg site as soon as early 2023.
Tesla parked its ambitions on Volkswagen's lawn when it announced its plans for the factory in Gruenheide, to the southeast of Berlin, with much fanfare in November 2019.
The Tesla 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.
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