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Live Updates: Tesla Giga Berlin final environmental permit press conference
After two years of construction, Tesla Gigafactory Berlin has secured its final environmental approval. The approval was discussed by Brandenburg Minister-President Dietmar Woidke during a press conference today.
A background of Tesla Giga Berlin, as well as the delays that hit the project along the way, have been discussed in our previous coverage from earlier today. Click here to access our backgrounder on Tesla’s Giga Berlin project.
But today, it’s all about Giga Berlin’s final environmental approval. The following were the topics discussed during the press conference, as well as some notable updates and quotes during the press conference (Quotes provided by Google Translate unless otherwise stated).
A press release has been sent out by Brandenburg about Tesla Gigafactory Berlin’s final approval. The following are some of the highlights from the document.
Potsdam/Frankfurt (Oder) – Today, Friday (March 4), the State Office for the Environment (LfU), which is responsible for immission control approval procedures, issued the approval for the Tesla factory in Grünheide (Oder-Spree district) in Brandenburg and handed it over to the project developer.
The approval notice will shortly be published in the official gazette for the state of Brandenburg, in the local daily newspapers and on the internet. The notice of approval is available for two weeks from the date of publication in the municipality of Grünheide (Mark), the town of Erkner, the Spreenhagen office and the seat of the administration of the Oder-Spree district in Beeskow as well as in the State Office for the Environment in Frankfurt (Oder) inspection off. The period of one month during which objections to the approval can be raised begins with the end of the exhibition. At the same time, the approval notice is published on the Internet on the EIA portal of the state of Brandenburg, where it can be viewed until the end of the objection period.
The project, which was approved with the 536-page decision, includes the plan for the production of up to 500,000 vehicles per year, aluminum smelting plants and an aluminum foundry, plants for surface treatment, heat generation, and storage. The facility also includes battery cell production, an operational wastewater treatment plant, a fire brigade equipment house, a high-bay warehouse, as well as laboratories and workshops.
The Tesla approval process is unusual in several ways. In a comparatively short time, the State Office for the Environment inspected and approved not just a factory, but an entire industrial area with several large-scale plants and repeated public participation.
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06:55 a.m. PST – Grunheide Mayor Arne Christiani highlights that Tesla’s work is a Herculean task. He also points out that Giga Berlin will provide opportunities, particularly jobs, in the area. Commenting on how the electric vehicle facility could benefit the region, the official stated that Tesla bringing Giga Berlin to the area is similar to “winning the lottery.”
06:52 a.m. PST – Jorg Steinbach takes the stage. He speaks about how important Giga Berlin is to the region. Brandenburg, after all, was not that prolific for high-profile investments before. With Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin, the state is now high on the list of locations that companies are looking at for industrial projects. Tesla’s presence has already signaled the development of an entire integrated supply chain.
06:50 a.m. PST – With the final approval now secured, Tesla now has to secure its operational permit for Giga Berlin’s Model Y production. About 400 conditions and requirements have been defined in the permit, which may seem like a lot, but are really not many, according to Vogel. The permit includes 23,700 pages of applications (HT Alex Voigt).
06:49 a.m. PST – Vogel reiterates that the final permit for Gigafactory Berlin is an “intermediate step.” He also praised those who were responsible for the approval of Giga Berlin, as they did not lose sight despite all the noise surrounding the project. “Those responsible for the approval have not been deterred by the media and political attention to the project. [We] have checked the approval requirements in this process,” Vogel remarked.
06:48 a.m. PST – Alex Vogel takes the stage and discusses the meticulous process involved in the approval of Gigafactory Berlin. “It couldn’t have been done faster, but we have to say that every procedure was carried out within the framework for federal German law approval,” he said.
06:46 a.m. PST – The Minister-President did highlight, however, that while the approval of Tesla Giga Berlin is a good day for the state of Brandenburg, it should not take away from the grave situation in Ukraine, which is currently being attacked by Russia. “I very much hope that this criminal attack by Putin on Ukraine will end as quickly as possible,” Woidke said.
06:45 a.m. PST – Minister-President Woidke highlights that the approval process of Giga Berlin was a challenge for Germany. “You know (this) was also doubted across Germany at the time. Is it even possible in Germany to meet the requirements, is it possible within two years to get the third-largest automobile factory in Germany (approved)? That’s what we’re talking about there, after all, building it up and making it a success…. I learned a lot from this project, yes. I also learned that (while) planning and approval is possible in Germany, I also have to change a lot. That is a discussion that we will continue at the federal level,” the Minister-President said.
06:41 a.m. PST – Almost 3,000 Tesla employees are already working daily in Gigafactory Berlin (credit to Alex Voigt for this translation)
06:40 a.m. PST – Minister-President Woidke notes that the approval of Giga Berlin was a mammoth task for Brandenburg. “I do believe that today, this March 4th, is a big step into the future for Brandenburg… I’m firmly convinced that in 20, 30, 40 years, if you look at the history of Brandenburg, there will be a time before Tesla and a time with Tesla,” Woidke said.
06:35 a.m. PST – Minister-President Woidke confirmed that the final construction permit for Gigafactory Berlin has been issued and given to Tesla.
06:30 a.m. PST – The press conference begins. Introductions are made. Brandenburg Minister-President Dietmar Woidke’s Tesla Team are introduced. Appreciation is extended to every member of “Task Force Tesla,” as each one was pivotal in getting the facility’s approvals passed.
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Tesla has officially launched public Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas, without a Safety Monitor in the vehicle, marking the first time the company has removed anyone from the vehicle other than the rider.
The Safety Monitor has been present in Tesla Robotaxis in Austin since its launch last June, maintaining safety for passengers and other vehicles, and was placed in the passenger’s seat.
Tesla planned to remove the Safety Monitor at the end of 2025, but it was not quite ready to do so. Now, in January, riders are officially reporting that they are able to hail a ride from a Model Y Robotaxi without anyone in the vehicle:
I am in a robotaxi without safety monitor pic.twitter.com/fzHu385oIb
— TSLA99T (@Tsla99T) January 22, 2026
Tesla started testing this internally late last year and had several employees show that they were riding in the vehicle without anyone else there to intervene in case of an emergency.
Tesla has now expanded that program to the public. It is not active in the entire fleet, but there are a “few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors,” Ashok Elluswamy said:
Robotaxi rides without any safety monitors are now publicly available in Austin.
Starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time. https://t.co/ShMpZjefwB
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) January 22, 2026
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi program also operates in the California Bay Area, where the fleet is much larger, but Safety Monitors are placed in the driver’s seat and utilize Full Self-Driving, so it is essentially the same as an Uber driver using a Tesla with FSD.
In Austin, the removal of Safety Monitors marks a substantial achievement for Tesla moving forward. Now that it has enough confidence to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis altogether, there are nearly unlimited options for the company in terms of expansion.
While it is hoping to launch the ride-hailing service in more cities across the U.S. this year, this is a much larger development than expansion, at least for now, as it is the first time it is performing driverless rides in Robotaxi anywhere in the world for the public to enjoy.
Tesla has scheduled its Earnings Call for Q4 and Full Year 2025 for next Wednesday, January 28, at 5:30 p.m. EST, and investors are already preparing to get some answers from executives regarding a wide variety of topics.
The company accepts several questions from retail investors through the platform Say, which then allows shareholders to vote on the best questions.
Tesla does not answer anything regarding future product releases, but they are willing to shed light on current timelines, progress of certain projects, and other plans.
There are five questions that range over a variety of topics, including SpaceX, Full Self-Driving, Robotaxi, and Optimus, which are currently in the lead to be asked and potentially answered by Elon Musk and other Tesla executives:
- You once said: Loyalty deserves loyalty. Will long-term Tesla shareholders still be prioritized if SpaceX does an IPO?
- Our Take – With a lot of speculation regarding an incoming SpaceX IPO, Tesla investors, especially long-term ones, should be able to benefit from an early opportunity to purchase shares. This has been discussed endlessly over the past year, and we must be getting close to it.
- When is FSD going to be 100% unsupervised?
- Our Take – Musk said today that this is essentially a solved problem, and it could be available in the U.S. by the end of this year.
- What is the current bottleneck to increase Robotaxi deployment & personal use unsupervised FSD? The safety/performance of the most recent models or people to monitor robots, robotaxis, in-car, or remotely? Or something else?
- Our Take – The bottleneck seems to be based on data, which Musk said Tesla needs 10 billion miles of data to achieve unsupervised FSD. Once that happens, regulatory issues will be what hold things up from moving forward.
- Regarding Optimus, could you share the current number of units deployed in Tesla factories and actively performing production tasks? What specific roles or operations are they handling, and how has their integration impacted factory efficiency or output?
- Our Take – Optimus is going to have a larger role in factories moving forward, and later this year, they will have larger responsibilities.
- Can you please tie purchased FSD to our owner accounts vs. locked to the car? This will help us enjoy it in any Tesla we drive/buy and reward us for hanging in so long, some of us since 2017.
- Our Take – This is a good one and should get us some additional information on the FSD transfer plans and Subscription-only model that Tesla will adopt soon.
Tesla will have its Earnings Call on Wednesday, January 28.
Elon Musk shared an incredible detail about Tesla Cybercab’s potential efficiency, as the company has hinted in the past that it could be one of the most affordable vehicles to operate from a per-mile basis.
ARK Invest released a report recently that shed some light on the potential incremental cost per mile of various Robotaxis that will be available on the market in the coming years.
The Cybercab, which is detailed for the year 2030, has an exceptionally low cost of operation, which is something Tesla revealed when it unveiled the vehicle a year and a half ago at the “We, Robot” event in Los Angeles.
Musk said on numerous occasions that Tesla plans to hit the $0.20 cents per mile mark with the Cybercab, describing a “clear path” to achieving that figure and emphasizing it is the “full considered” cost, which would include energy, maintenance, cleaning, depreciation, and insurance.
Probably true
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2026
ARK’s report showed that the Cybercab would be roughly half the cost of the Waymo 6th Gen Robotaxi in 2030, as that would come in at around $0.40 per mile all in. Cybercab, at scale, would be at $0.20.
Credit: ARK Invest
This would be a dramatic decrease in the cost of operation for Tesla, and the savings would then be passed on to customers who choose to utilize the ride-sharing service for their own transportation needs.
The U.S. average cost of new vehicle ownership is about $0.77 per mile, according to AAA. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft rideshares often cost between $1 and $4 per mile, while Waymo can cost between $0.60 and $1 or more per mile, according to some estimates.
Tesla’s engineering has been the true driver of these cost efficiencies, and its focus on creating a vehicle that is as cost-effective to operate as possible is truly going to pay off as the vehicle begins to scale. Tesla wants to get the Cybercab to about 5.5-6 miles per kWh, which has been discussed with prototypes.
Additionally, fewer parts due to the umboxed manufacturing process, a lower initial cost, and eliminating the need to pay humans for their labor would also contribute to a cheaper operational cost overall. While aspirational, all of the ingredients for this to be a real goal are there.
It may take some time as Tesla needs to hammer the manufacturing processes, and Musk has said there will be growing pains early. This week, he said regarding the early production efforts:
“…initial production is always very slow and follows an S-curve. The speed of production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are. For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast.”
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla Earnings Call: Top 5 questions investors are asking
