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Tesla Gigafactory Berlin to be under comprehensive inspection this month

Credit: Tesla

Tesla Gigafactory Berlin will be under a comprehensive inspection this month. The update was announced by the Ministry of the Environment, which noted that the electric vehicle production facility would be inspected from May 9 to May 20, 2022. 

The comprehensive inspection comes about a month and a half after Giga Berlin formally started vehicle production. While the facility has been producing cars for customer deliveries, the inspection would determine if Giga Berlin was actually built and is being operated in accordance with Germany’s regulations. 

As noted by the Berliner-Zeitung, authorities may set grace periods for Tesla if it is determined that Giga Berlin’s requirements were not fully met. It should be noted that a ban on Giga Berlin’s vehicle production would only be considered by authorities if the comprehensive inspection reveals immediate dangers. 

Tesla has been building Model Y crossovers at Giga Berlin since March 22. Despite this, the facility itself has not fully completed all the requirements for its environmental approval. The state government has given the nod for such a setup since Giga Berlin will be put into operation in stages anyway. With such a setup, the requirements for the respective parts of the electric vehicle factory are successively met, as per the Ministry of the Environment. 

Gigafactory Berlin is still not absent of critics. A longtime opponent, the Green League, recently stated that Giga Berlin’s operating permit should be revoked. The environmental group pointed to an incident in April when 15,000 liters of a paint mixture leaked out of Giga Berlin’s paint shop. The substance was caught and gathered in a collection tank and later pumped out by a waste disposal company. 

During this process, about two or three liters ran into a driveway. The Green League alleged that since the substance was a class 1 water hazard (diesel is a class 2 water hazard), the incident could have harmed the groundwater in the area. The State of Brandenburg, however, has noted that it sees no danger to the groundwater due to Giga Berlin so far, and that incidents involving water-polluting substances would have no impact beyond the premises of the plant as long as preventative measures are taken.  

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Tesla Gigafactory Berlin to be under comprehensive inspection this month
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