Tesla Tips Germany as 'Leading Choice' for European Gigafactory

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Motors Incorporated (NASDAQ:TSLA) (Palo Alto, California) has tipped Germany as the best possible location for a European Gigafactory for electric vehicle (EV) production.

"Germany is a leading choice for Europe. Perhaps on the German-French border makes sense, near the Benelux countries," Musk tweeted. A European plant is seen as crucial for Tesla to establish a dominant foothold in what is one of the fastest-growing EV markets. It would also make it easier for the company to compete against many of Europe's leading car brands like BMW, Mercedes, Renault and Volkswagen, all of which are investing heavily in expanding their hybrid and electric car ranges.

In late 2016, Tesla bought Grohmann Engineering in Prum, Germany, a 700-employee strong company specialising in advanced robotics and automation that Musk has been using to improve the automated manufacturing taking place at its Gigafactory in Fremont, California. At the time, Tesla's plan was to add an additional 1,000 engineering and technician jobs at what is now called Tesla Grohmann Automation. The Fremont plant is Tesla's only vehicle manufacturing plant and cannot keep up with the company's targets. Industrial Info is tracking a $1.26 billion expansion at the plant which promises to nearly double its production capacity. The company is also facing increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries as car demand rockets and the domestic battery storage market grows. The proposed $5 billion Gigafactory in McCarran, Nevada, is still under construction, and until it is completed there may be shortages in battery production.

Tesla is not the only company with giant-scale battery production in Europe. Earlier this year, Industrial Info reported that two former senior Tesla employees, Peter Carlsson and Paolo Cerruti, and their company Northvolt (Stockholm, Sweden), had received 52.5 million euro ($68 million) in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to get the Skelleftea demonstration battery production plant underway in Sweden. The goal is that the plant will be Europe's first 8-gigawatt hour (GWh) plant and will cost an estimated $4.3 billion to construct. For additional information, see March 1, 2018, article - Europe Funds First Battery 'Gigafactory'.

In March the European Union (EU) set out plans to capture the lion's share of the projected 250 billion-euro ($304 billion) lithium-ion battery market by 2025. The EU Battery Alliance, a group of more than 50 companies that was established by the European Commission (EC) last October, wants to build between 10 and 20 European battery "Gigafactories". For additional information, see March 5, 2018, article - Europe Plans Assault on $300 Billion Battery Market.

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