As I understand they'll mostly be filled by the polish workforce, they didn't built it so close to the border for no reason.

https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/en/building-delays-at-tesla-...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market#%22Four...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market#Free_mo...

Building a plant on the US-Mexico border will not be seen as kindly if it's perceived that they are not using US labor.

Or maybe the math somehow works out, but I doubt it.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/digpub/eumove/bloc-2c.ht...

> In 2019, the largest number of cross-border workers among the Member States were for those living in Poland and working in Germany (122 000 people)

I don't have any particular opinion on whether this is good or bad at the moment, but it's certainly fascinating to follow ...

The fact that you can't get over yourself for two seconds to comprehend this kind of shows you have no clue what you're even talking about.

Change in the way the German government operates? I hope not, but I also doubt it.

These projects usually take many years and Tesla tried to basically do it in one and is annoyed that it is stretching out to two.

In the big picture 2-3 years to get a new large auto factory online is pretty normal. There are definitely some parallels to SpaceX in Boca Chica, TX. They both are hitting regulatory delays, but stepping back it seems they are the result of intentionally trying to "move fast and break things" with their development timelines.

Edit: Citation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bdkcoiFaN0

They're hoping to add a 250MW power plant which would be a major change but that would be part of a different environmental assessment.

They raised a howl because the plans say they will start on a power plant, whose impact is considered -- but 'oh my goodness, where will the gas come from? A well? Trucks? Oh my!'

Well -- that literally may not be known yet, as is when and whether they'd get close to running it at anything like capacity.

And that's not a problem; Texas has power plant regulators, and pipelines have their own paperwork and process.

The FAA regulating this is a bit funny anyway. :) Eventually that'll change, but right now they're doing a good job handling these weird corners of their responsibility with grace.

I give it a 50/50 that they'll have to pull out of Germany, losing all the money they put in so far.

It's possible the problem isn't so much that regulators are trying to play dirty against Musk but so inept at trying to cut corners to win this "prestige project" that they actually cause overhead by being caught and having to do things again properly.

I'd say generally speaking Tesla's perception in Germany is positive and politicians are more inclined to bend rules in Tesla's favors rather than against. There are just limitations to what you can get away with.

That said, the major angel for the Tesla project is the local state government of Brandenburg, which is led by the SPD, the party that emerged strongest in the national election. The CDU is also in Brandenburg's gov coalition, but I don't think Laschet's (national CDU candidate) Musk election campaign media stunt had much relation to anything.

We also have a proud history of industrial corruption in Germany (we call it "Klüngel" because that sounds nicer), especially when it comes to public construction projects.

I find it a lot more likely that the failures are the result of a mix of public officials being overly hasty in trying to pave the road (so to speak) and making promises they couldn't deliver on, than that this is entirely down to traditional car manufacturers using their political leverage against Tesla. Especially given the location of the factory.

Germany somehow manages to have the reputation that there isn't "low level corruption", though there is plenty of that to go around.

Out of curiosity, what are your other points of comparison?

[1] https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/372-000-liter-pro-stu...

Water use is a bit of a misnomer though. It's not like agriculture where the water gets "fed" to plants and mostly evaporates.

Tesla plans to recycle/reuse most of the water at the Giga Berlin plant: https://insideevs.com/news/526187/tesla-minimizes-water-use-...

And yes, the positive impact of electric cars even considering all raw materials and water is unequivocal.

> Authorities decided to repeat the process after

> environmental groups disputed in a separate case

It's environmental NGOs who cause this trouble for Tesla.

You are no doubt referring to the Brandenburg state premier who entered into totally democratic secret negotiations with Tesla and then presented the imminent construction of the factory as fait accompli to his surprised electorate?

German automakers are well known for their lobbying

I mean, let's compare this to the rather celebrated South Korean court decision to force Google/Apple into giving up control over in-app payments: Great for the customers and for competition and for developers, but it's also no accident it happened in a country where Samsung has every business interest in the outcome.

But there is a high likelihood that they will be getting this one as well - at least according to the latest information I could find...