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TEsla founder Elon Musk assumes his company will make around half a million electric cars in Germany next year. “It will probably take until the end of 2022 until we reach this capacity,” he said in a discussion with managers of European companies ahead of the Axel Springer Awards in Berlin.
Just over a year ago, Musk announced the construction of Tesla’s first European factory in Grünheide when he was awarded the Golden Steering Wheel at the Axel Springer House. Construction is well underway and the auctioning ceremony has been held.
However, final approval for the construction of Tesla’s German factory is still missing. The company has already started work on the basis of preliminary permits, even if Tesla risks having to tear everything down again if the permit is not granted in the end.
“Most companies would not risk having to take everything down again,” Musk said in Tuesday’s discussion. “There are always many risks associated with Tesla. Those who avoid such risks should not invest in Tesla.”
However, until now, not many investors have listened to this advice. Despite the huge risks Musk repeatedly takes with Tesla, the company is highly valued in the stock market.
The company is currently worth € 451 billion, significantly more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW combined. Shareholders are betting that Tesla can become a massive manufacturer around the world with its electric vehicles.
This year, Musk wants to deliver 500,000 cars to his customers for the first time, but in the face of falling sales in China, he’s currently open if he can achieve this goal. The Silicon Valley company launched its first electric car twelve years ago.
The product range now offers three different types: Tesla S, X and Model 3. The original Roadster model was only available until 2011.
Musk: “I love Germany, it’s great”
Musk also wants to have its own vehicle models developed in Germany for the European market. On one of his last visits, he found that a compact car wouldn’t be bad for Europe – he and his colleagues had barely found parking spaces in Berlin for the Model X electric SUV they were traveling in. Musk is now regularly in Germany and recently even had personal interviews with potential employees for the new plant.
“I love Germany, it’s great,” Musk said during the discussion on Tuesday before the awards ceremony. “I always have a good time when I’m in Germany.” He is particularly impressed by the culture of engineering in this country. “People want to get things done,” Musk said.
It was long speculated whether Musk would also produce battery cells in Germany for the vehicles built here. Just two weeks ago, at a battery conference held by Federal Minister of the Economy Peter Altmaier (CDU), announced that Tesla is even planning the world’s largest battery cell factory in Brandenburg. Like any other company planning cell production in Germany, Tesla can also count on “substantial” subsidies for its plans, Altmaier announced.
The demand for battery cells will continue to increase. Musk is convinced that only electric cars will circulate in the future. However, it will be some time until then. From the moment that only electric vehicles are sold, the electrification of the entire vehicle fleet will take about twenty years.
Musk admitted that the electrification of transportation will lead to a massive increase in demand for electricity. “If the entire transport sector is electrified, we will need twice as much electricity,” he predicted. “To do this, we have to increase the capacities of wind, solar and nuclear power plants.”
He explicitly came out in favor of the use of nuclear energy, which, like renewable energy sources, does not contain CO2. “I am not against nuclear power,” he said, “where there is no risk of natural disasters like earthquakes, the risk of nuclear power is very small.”
Tesla vehicles can also serve as storage on the electrical grid.
His vision is for roofs made entirely of solar panels and combined with a local battery to provide power to residents. The Tesla founder is skeptical of using electric cars as storage in power grids to offset spikes in demand.
Such a function was already built into the first Tesla, but was not used by customers. “We can easily turn it back on,” Musk said. This is particularly conceivable in Europe.
When asked how air traffic can be made climate neutral in the future, Musk said: “The planes will also be safely electrically operated.” The first electric aircraft will be launched in the next five years.
The use depends mainly on the development of battery technology. As soon as the batteries have a storage capacity of more than 400 watt hours per kilogram, they are worth using in airplanes, initially in propeller airplanes, which require less power than jets.
“We currently have a capacity of 300 watt hours per kilogram, the best and most expensive batteries already handle 400 watt hours,” Musk said. This technological leap will allow electric cars to have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers on a single charge.
Tesla is considered the great pacemaker of the automotive industry. In particular, the vehicle’s software is clearly superior to the competition. Tesla secures this advantage through permanent additional developments that are replicated in vehicles via the Internet, the so-called over-the-air updates.
Tesla improves range through software updates
Thanks to these updates, the performance of older cars will improve over time. Tesla is the only manufacturer that can, for example, increase the range of its cars, with improved monitoring software for the battery.
With autonomous driving, the group is currently venturing into an area no other automaker trusts: Tesla is providing its customers with a new form of its driving assistance system that is capable of driving largely of autonomously within urbanized areas.
The company calls this system “Full Self Driving”. Neither BMW nor Mercedes-Benz equip their vehicles with such capabilities. They argue that autonomous driving is not yet legally allowed, and they only want to offer similar systems if there is a legal basis for it. “In twenty years, almost all cars will drive autonomously,” said the Tesla boss.
Musk isn’t the first Silicon Valley entrepreneur to receive the Axel Springer Award. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg accepted the award in 2016, and has since been followed by the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and economist Shoshana Zuboff.
