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Tesla Giga Berlin cleared of water supply concerns as state government begins infrastructure planning
Tesla takes a step closer to begin construction of Giga Berlin in Grunheide as Brandenburg authorities announce initial plans to spend 100 million euros on infrastructure development around the facility. Additionally, the Agriculture and Environment Minister Axel Vogel confirmed during a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that there’s a secure water supply for the entire region, thereby eliminating one of the biggest risks that would have delayed construction of Tesla’s first European factory.
Local residents, business owners, and environmental groups initially sounded the alarm about water, in fear that the California-based electric carmaker’s plans for a large production facility will dry up their local water supply. Tesla plans to initially produce 150,000 electric vehicles annually at Giga Berlin and will eventually ramp up to 500,000 units per year.
Responsible water association Strausberg / Erkner (WSE) addressed the community in a meeting last week, noting that they can meet the water supply needs of the Gigafactory in Grunheide but need additional funding. According to Vogel, WSE supplied about 10.8 million cubic meters of water in 2018 and the government can stretch that to the approved framework of 16 million cubic meters. Tesla’s Giga Berlin will only need about 1.77 million cubic meters of water per year.
“The evaluations will be completed this week and then the approval notice will be issued, there is no reason to be worried that Tesla cannot be supplied with sufficient drinking water,” Vogel said.
In January, Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk also chimed in on the water supply issue and clarified that Giga Berlin is designed with sustainability and the environment in mind.
Giga Berlin / GF4 will absolutely be designed with sustainability and the environment in mind
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2020
With Water Issues Solved, Government Thinks of Infrastructure
As Tesla Giga Berlin gains momentum with the assurance of the Brandenburg government that there’s enough water supply for the factory and for the rest of the community, authorities have announced plans to spend 10 million euros this year on roads and railway connections. Another 90 million euros will be allocated next year for various infrastructure projects around the car factory and a total of one billion euros would be spent by 2030.
Minister of Transport Guido Beermann disclosed plans for the electrification of the railway siding and an extension or relocation of the Fangschleuse train station.
There are also talks about the expansion of state roads, bus line networks that will serve commuters to Grunheide, and the extension of the S-Bahn, the city’s rapid railway system, to Grunheide.
Tesla enthusiast Emil Senkel has provided a clear illustration of these plans:
being examined:
– electrification of the railway siding
– possible extension of the S-Bahn to Grünheide
– bus lines networksplanned:
– new link parallel to the railway line between the motorway and L23
– extension or relocation of the existing train station
– 4-lane extension pic.twitter.com/R5ElDHJUzY— Emil Senkel (@EmilSenkel) February 13, 2020
With the influx of people expected when Giga Berlin goes online, the government is also planning to spend 30 million euros for new dormitories in nearby areas, 50 million euros for the renovation of dormitories, and 52 million euros for the rehabilitation of municipal bridges and bike lanes.
Environmental Protection Measures
As Tesla completes the necessary requirements to move forward with the construction of its facility in Brandenburg, the carmaker announced the steps it’s taking to ensure all measures are taken to protect the environment. Tesla will put up around 400 nesting boxes for birds breeding in the area and relocate several nests of forest ants. As planned, the carmaker will also search the forest for hibernating bats, forest lizards, and other creatures that need to be moved.
Tesla plans to start production of vehicles at Giga Berlin by July 2021. The factory is expected to employ around 8,000 to 12,000 workers to help with the production of the Model 3 sedan, the Model Y crossover.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.