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Tesla to start Giga Berlin hiring in January with 7,000 jobs: report

(Credit: Tesla)

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Tesla will begin filling Giga Berlin’s employment sheet as early as January 2021, with 7,000 people being hired by the electric automaker to prepare for the first production push, a new report states.

German media outlet LR Online stated that Tesla is prepared to hire 7,000 people for the German production facility ahead of the planned Summer 2021 manufacturing kickoff. With construction well underway and buildings already being close to complete, it is time for Tesla to begin filling the facility with workers to prepare for a massive EV manufacturing effort in Europe.

According to the Frankfurt Employment Agency, 200 people have already been hired and placed within Giga Berlin’s warehouse. Other positions that have already been filled are engineering jobs, which CEO Elon Musk announced that he would personally tend to in a Tweet earlier this month.

The European market holds significant upside potential for the U.S.-based automaker, as EVs are widely popular on the continent. However, Tesla has been importing vehicles from both the Fremont factory in Northern California and Giga Shanghai in China to fulfill demand needs in Europe.

It appears that Tesla will be hiring for Giga Berlin in a set of employment waves. The first wave will see 7,000 jobs be filled, and the Frankfurt Employment Agency has announced that applications will begin being accepted in December 2020. The starting monthly salary is set to be €2,700, or around $3,200.

While most employment opportunities will be manufacturing and production-based jobs, Tesla is planning to bring on a team of 25 dedicated engineers to resolve some of the toughest and most challenging issues related to the manufacturing processes of the cars at the plant. This was outlined in a posting from a Giga Berlin engineer earlier this month, who revealed that the 25 guns email address was related to the “dream team” that the automaker plans to build for these specific issues.

Giga Berlin’s early hiring processes could hint toward Tesla’s rumors of beginning the production process earlier than expected. Some European pre-orderers have stated that the automaker had contacted them and communicated that they should prepare for delivery in Q1 or Q2 2021. However, as of now, Tesla still states that the first production lines will begin operation in July 2021.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck gets a big price change on two of its three trims

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Cybertruck trims saw a big price change, at least on two of the three available to consumers, as demand for the all-electric pickup appears to be increasing.

Tesla bumped up its Base All-Wheel-Drive trim level up to $74,990 from $69,990 and the Premium All-Wheel-Drive configuration from $79,990 to $84,990. The Cyberbeast price remains unchanged at $99,990.

Despite questions of demand for the truck, Tesla is bumping its two least expensive trims up $5,000 to signal that there are plenty of buyers. Although SpaceX has been buying Tesla Cybertruck units to utilize as company vehicles, it is no secret that the Cybertruck is among the most sought-after Tesla models out there.

The issue has always been pricing, at least for the most part. When Tesla initially launched the Cybertruck AWD at $59,990 a few months back, the company stated that price would remain intact for just ten days due to the influx of orders it received.

Cybertruck Sales: Is It the Product or Pricing?

Depending on who you ask, you will likely hear one of two explanations for relatively low Cybertruck sales: either the product itself or the pricing.

Yes, this is the best-selling all-electric pickup on the market. However, there are people who simply hate the look of it, which I understand, but do not agree with. Look is totally subjective, and I love the look of the Cybertruck.

Some people will not buy the Cybertruck because of the look, but I am under the impression that sales would be much better if this truck were priced lower; something that might not be possible considering Tesla’s need to make money on its products. When it was unveiled in 2019, its most expensive trim level was $69,990. Now, the cheapest trim level is more expensive than that.

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I would be in a Cybertruck if it were more affordable. I LOVE my Model Y, but Cybertruck is the best vehicle Tesla makes, and it’s not particularly close. Even in the base model, the steer-by-wire, the space, storage, and performance make it more desirable than the Model Y to me. I cannot be the only Tesla owner without a Cybertruck who feels this way.

If you’re interested in buying a Tesla vehicle, use my referral link.

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Energy

Tesla Semi factory is getting a celebration nobody expected

Tesla will inaugurate its Nevada Semi factory September 24, five months after production quietly began ramping.

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Tesla says it will officially inaugurate its new Semi factory in Nevada next month. The Tesla Semi account posted the announcement on X, sharing a graphic titled “Semi Rollout” with a date of September 24. No further details were given about the format of the event or who would attend.

While Tesla’s dedicated Semi plant in Sparks, adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada, opened back in April, with the first trucks rolling off the high volume line on April 29, the timing for the factory inauguration comes at a surprise. The ribbon cutting event five months into production is a break from how Tesla has usually handled its other factories, where the first truck or car off the line typically served as the milestone moment.

The 1.7 million square foot factory was built as part of a $3.6 billion expansion Tesla announced in early 2023, and it shares a site with the battery cell lines that feed the Semi’s structural pack, a decision meant to remove the supply bottleneck that delayed the truck for years. The plant is designed for 50,000 trucks a year at full ramp. Semi program director Dan Priestley has said production “is now ramping” rather than claiming it has reached scale.

Nine years passed between the Semi’s 2017 unveiling and this stage of production, with the truck slipping from an original 2019 target through hand built pilot units for PepsiCo and a slow build out of the Nevada plant. An inauguration event now gives Tesla a stage to talk up that ramp and reset expectations for how many trucks it can begin delivering at scale.

The September date also lines up with the Semi’s next milestone. Tesla confirmed the truck is heading to Europe with a full unveiling at the IAA Transportation trade show in Hannover, Germany, running September 15 through 20. Between the Nevada event and the Hannover reveal, Tesla has roughly a week and a half in September to make the case that the Semi is now a truck being built and sold on two continents rather than tested in a handful of fleets.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk just set a condition that could end Falcon 9 as we know it

Elon Musk says SpaceX will finally retire Falcon 9 once Starship flies reliably every week.

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Elon Musk gave the clearest timeline yet for retiring Falcon 9, SpaceX’s workhorse rocket.

The comment came in a reply on X, where Musk wrote that “once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift super scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day, which means winding down Falcon.” He was responding to physicist Casey Handmer, who noted that NASA is reportedly uneasy about SpaceX phasing out Falcon after building what Handmer called the most successful launcher ever, with the fleet nearing 1,000 total launches.


Falcon 9 is still SpaceX’s busiest vehicle by far. The company is on pace for roughly 140 to 145 Falcon flights this year, following 165 in 2025, president Gwynne Shotwell told Time earlier in 2026. She has already said Falcon flights would “tail off” as Starship comes online, while reports indicate that SpaceX has stopped booking new Falcon 9 launches past 2028 and halted production of some expendable Falcon hardware, according to Bloomberg.

It’s worth noting that Musk’s post is a condition, and not a countdown on when Falcon will retire. Starship has not yet flown weekly, let alone daily. Its most recent flight in July ended with a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, a milestone Musk pointed to earlier this month when he said the vehicle’s heat shield problem was effectively solved. SpaceX towed that ship to Christmas Island for inspection, and the next flight, Flight 14, is aimed at putting Starship into orbit for the first time. A tower catch attempt for the upper stage has been pushed back to what Musk has called “a few months” away.

SpaceX and a new Trump order that could rewrite the next decade of launches

The gap between Falcon’s role today and Starship’s promised role tomorrow matters most to NASA. Falcon and its Dragon capsule remain the only way the agency rotates astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and Starship is not certified to carry NASA crews. Musk’s post did not address how that handoff would work if Falcon winds down before a crew-rated Starship variant exists. The timing lines up with Musk’s other recent Starship comments. Two days before the Falcon post, he told a different X user that SpaceX is aiming for more than 30 Starship launches a day by 2030, or roughly 10,000 a year, a figure tied to the Trump administration’s new push for higher national launch cadence. Falcon, which took over a decade to reach its first 100 launches, was never built to approach that kind of volume.

For now, Falcon 9 keeps flying at a near-record pace while Starship works to prove it can do the job Musk has already picked out for it.

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