The spokesperson of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs said today that Tesla has withdrawn its application for subsidies for its battery factory in Brandenburg, a suburb of Berlin. The spokesperson said: Tesla will continue to adhere to its plan to build a battery factory at the Gigafactory in Brandenburg, but will no longer apply for state subsidies.
In January of this year, the European Union approved a 2.9 billion euros (about 3.5 billion US dollars) assistance program, which includes state assistance to companies such as Tesla and BMW to support local production of electric car batteries.
According to the plan, Tesla is expected to receive 1.14 billion euros (about 1.28 billion US dollars) in subsidies. The exact amount was originally planned to be made before the end of this year, but now, Tesla has withdrawn the application.
According to information on the Brandenburg government website, Tesla also applied for local funding subsidies from Brandenburg in November 2020. A spokesperson for the Brandenburg Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that the application has not been withdrawn.
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The amount of subsidy applied by Tesla is unknown, but according to regulations, investments worth more than 100 million euros will usually receive a subsidy of 6.8%. According to estimates by the German Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tesla will invest 5 billion euros in battery factories.
Tesla announced as early as November 2019 that it plans to build a new factory in Brandenburg, Germany, to cater to the rapidly growing demand for electric vehicles in Europe. Later, Musk said that the German factory plans to add a battery production facility. The initial annual installed capacity of the facility will exceed 100 gigawatt-hours and will eventually reach 250 gigawatt-hours.
A spokesperson for the German Ministry of Economic Affairs also said today that the construction of Tesla’s Brandenburg Gigafactory has made good progress in the past few weeks. And Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) has previously stated that he hopes the plant can start producing cars before the end of this year.