Tesla electric vehicles are parked at the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg. (zu dpa: «Tesla plans to invest millions in batteries, creating 1,500 new jobs») Patrick Pleul/dpa
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla plans to recruit more than 1,500 new employees for battery cell production in Germany.
Just under $250 million is to be invested to create the conditions for the annual production of 18 gigawatt hours of battery cells in Grünheide near Berlin, Tesla announced on Tuesday.
In April, the carmaker announced that it intended to hire around 1,000 new staff at its sole European car plant by the end of June to ramp up production by a fifth to around 6,000 vehicles per week – that is 300,000 per year – due to increased demand. Production and registration figures had fallen, but Tesla now sees a turnaround.
More staff will be needed to increase battery cell production, the company says. The staffing requirement for battery cell production amounts to more than 1,500 employees. When asked, a spokesman explained that this was intended to happen in the medium term.
Currently, the cells are manufactured in the United States and shipped to Germany. Europe has so far lagged behind Asia in particular when it comes to the production of battery cells for electric cars. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk announced in 2020 that he wanted to turn the plant near Berlin into the world’s largest battery factory.
Tesla opened the Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory around four years ago and initially aimed to produce 500,000 cars a year.