Photo: ZDF Frontal 21
You are forgiven if you think the video below was of an SNL sketch, but it wasn’t. In a press conference held after a visit to Giga Grünheide with Armin Laschet, Germany's conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, Elon Musk laughed hard at least twice when asked about environmental concerns to Tesla’s new factory and also hydrogen use in vehicles.
Musk was beside Laschet in the press conference. The candidate asked the Tesla CEO about the future of transportation, probably unaware of Musk’s declarations about hydrogen and fuel cells over these years. Laschet was clearly embarrassed to hear Musk say:
“Definitely electric. Hydrogen is a waste of time.”
Musk then laughed out loud, as if the question was just too absurd, to begin with. The Tesla CEO repeated the laughs after a reporter asked him about the concerns about water usage in that factory, which is no joke for Grünheide citizens.
The new factory is being built over a groundwater table. The problems started when Tesla had to place foundation piles on the terrain. They invaded these groundwater reserves that serve residents around it. As ZDF Frontal 21 explained, the company was fined for doing that without a due permit and later exempt from the penalty. It placed 560 piles in the area.
Environment activists were also worried about the water consumption the factory would have. Tesla now claims that it will use a little more than 2 cubic meters of water per vehicle if you include the battery production – another concern for the people around Giga Grünheide. That was the question a reporter asked him. This was his response, among new episodes of laughter.
“This region has so much water… Look around you! It’s completely wrong. There’s water everywhere here. Does this seem like a desert to you?"
The reporter ends the discussion with a seemingly irritated “Danke schön” only to hear from him: “That’s ridiculous. It rains a lot!” That was not her question.
Musk said he wants Giga Grünheide to produce its first car in October, but he did not explain how it will do that without the 4680 cells the European Model Y was supposed to use. He would probably laugh if someone asked him about that. Tesla shareholders and advocates shouldn’t.
“Definitely electric. Hydrogen is a waste of time.”
Musk then laughed out loud, as if the question was just too absurd, to begin with. The Tesla CEO repeated the laughs after a reporter asked him about the concerns about water usage in that factory, which is no joke for Grünheide citizens.
The new factory is being built over a groundwater table. The problems started when Tesla had to place foundation piles on the terrain. They invaded these groundwater reserves that serve residents around it. As ZDF Frontal 21 explained, the company was fined for doing that without a due permit and later exempt from the penalty. It placed 560 piles in the area.
Environment activists were also worried about the water consumption the factory would have. Tesla now claims that it will use a little more than 2 cubic meters of water per vehicle if you include the battery production – another concern for the people around Giga Grünheide. That was the question a reporter asked him. This was his response, among new episodes of laughter.
“This region has so much water… Look around you! It’s completely wrong. There’s water everywhere here. Does this seem like a desert to you?"
The reporter ends the discussion with a seemingly irritated “Danke schön” only to hear from him: “That’s ridiculous. It rains a lot!” That was not her question.
Musk said he wants Giga Grünheide to produce its first car in October, but he did not explain how it will do that without the 4680 cells the European Model Y was supposed to use. He would probably laugh if someone asked him about that. Tesla shareholders and advocates shouldn’t.
Elon Musk laughed off a question about water concerns during a visit to the Tesla ‘Gigafactory’ near Berlin. Tesla has faced resistance over the plant whose site partly overlaps a drinking water protection zone and borders on a nature reserve. Read more https://t.co/D312Apa0fv pic.twitter.com/e3viQWUcUH
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) August 13, 2021
Google News