Tesla already wants to grow its German factory, despite production at the site only starting in March.
The car manufacturer currently operates a 300-hectare site in Germany that includes a car factory and a battery plant currently under construction. It recently submitted an application to build on a further 100 hectares of land to establish a freight station, logistics areas, and additional parking spaces.
The committee of the Gruenheide municipality will discuss the matter on June 2 and could decide on whether to approve the plans as early as June 23, Auto News reports.
Tesla’s German factory has the capacity to build 500,000 vehicles annually and 50 GWh of batteries, making it Germany’s largest single EV site. It is unclear when Tesla will ramp up production to reach capacity but at the factory’s opening in March, it had only hired roughly 3,500 employees of the 12,000 that will eventually work at the site.
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While the factory is now up and running, reaching this stage was not easy for Tesla. In fact, the factory came under fire during its construction after it was alleged that the automaker had installed pipes that could have sent industrial wastewater into a nearby protected area for drinking water. Musk also expressed his frustration at the bureaucratic red tape that repeatedly delayed the construction of the site.
The German site isn’t the only factory that Tesla is expanding. In early May, the company confirmed plans to extend its factory in Shanghai that will add an additional 450,000 vehicles to its annual capacity.
