Tesla has officially opened its plant outside Berlin today, further solidifying the automakers’ domination of the global EV market as Musk handed over the first 30 Model Ys to customers in front of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. And while the continued growth of Tesla may not seem to be anything out of the ordinary, what is out of the ordinary is videos circulating on Twitter of CEO Elon Musk dancing in excitement.
Elon is dancing again!! pic.twitter.com/IKcQCYhk6u
— Tesla_Adri (@tesla_adri) March 22, 2022
Musk’s reaction is actually his way of fulfilling his “promise to dance”, which he also did two years ago when Tesla opened the Shanghai factory. Tesla’s €5 billion ($6.9 billion) Berlin facility was first announced in 2019, and is set to “boost Tesla’s capacity to make electric sport utility vehicles as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up fuel costs and adds momentum to already-soaring EV demand.”
The facility is opening at a perfect time, as Tesla’s production has been met with a number of supply chain challenges, including industry-wide shortages of key materials including semiconductors and battery metals.
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“The start of production is nice, but volume production is the hard part,” Musk said during a visit to the plant construction site late last year. He went on to note that Tesla hopes to make 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles a week by the end of this year.
Moreover, the new plant will allow Tesla to capture more of Europe’s expanding EV market which, for reference, seems to be moving at a quicker pace than the Canadian EV market. Musk also tweeted last week that he was working on a new “master plan”, which will include “scaling to extreme size.”