Musk wants to produce the first electric cars for Europe in December

Tesla boss Elon Musk wants to produce the first electric cars for Europe in Germany by December at the latest. The company boss announced this at an open day at his first European plant in Grünheide near Berlin. After that, it will take until the end of next year for production to ramp up. By then, a battery factory that is still under construction should be in operation next to the car plant, Musk said. Musk announced the so-called Giga Factory at the end of 2019 and built it in less than two years. In the future, around 12,000 employees will build up to 500,000 electric cars a year there. According to the company, as many parts as possible should be produced on site in order to become independent of suppliers. At the open house, Musk also brought the production of so-called cybertrucks into play, which have not yet been on the market. So far, however, Musk has only had early approvals for the construction of the factory. The last environmental approval for the entire project is still pending, and several hundred objections are still being discussed. Critics complain that the industrial building is partly being built in a water protection area. Both opponents and supporters of the project, however, expect that the approval will be granted in the next few weeks. The Tesla boss defended his project against concerns that the production was diverting too much water from the region. "Our factory uses very little water," he said. Tesla's mission is the fastest possible transition to renewable energies and climate protection. At the same time, he recruited qualified employees from all over Europe. "I'm a little worried that we won't be able to hire enough people," said Musk.