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Tesla Loses Battery Plant Subsidies for Giga Gruenheide Due to Delays

Jean de la Fontaine may be dead for more than 400 years, but his fables are still spot on when it comes to modern life. Take “The Fox and the Grapes:” it describes precisely how Tesla and Elon Musk reacted to the fact they lost €1.1 billion ($1.24 billion at the current exchange rate) in subsidies to build a battery factory at Giga Grünheide.
Tesla Loses Subsidies for Battery Plant in Germany, Pretends It Didn't Want It Anyway 16 photos
Photo: Tesla/Twitter
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As Financial Times stressed, the European Union law for these incentives states that the funds are only for the “first industrial development” of the technology. We have no idea what the advantage is, especially if Tesla can build other factories elsewhere for the same cells shortly after that – or even simultaneously. Regardless, rules are rules, and this one determines Tesla is not eligible.

Its priority for when the 4680 cells are finally ready is very likely the Cybertruck. With a long waiting list for it, the company has to focus on delivering these vehicles. Apart from that, Tesla also said it has a pilot plant for the 4680 batteries close to its Fremont factory, on Kato Road. It may be enough to count as the first attempt to produce these batteries, even if they are not ready yet.

Instead of waiting for a negative answer, Tesla preferred to withdraw its request for subsidies. Elon Musk was quick to say that “it has always been Tesla’s view that all subsidies should be eliminated, but that must include the massive subsidies for oil & gas.” Sour grapes, you know? Which does not match with accepting subsidies for multiple other things.

Thanks to them, Tesla chose Grünheide for its factory. It has done the same in Texas because of incentives. Tesla took carbon credits for years and still does: it was only profitable in multiple quarters due to them. Even Fremont was bought with California’s help and tax incentives.

In other tweets, Musk seems to argue that subsidies are harmful but that everybody else takes them, so... Tesla would be just making the game more even by doing the same. That does not seem precisely coherent.

Like La Fontaine’s fox, Tesla and Elon Musk could not reach the subsidies for the battery plant, so they decided to pretend they did not want them. Some people will defend Musk’s version of the story with all their hearts. Too bad it is not true: if it were, Tesla would not have applied for them in the first place.









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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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