If you read my essays regularly, you've kinda noted in the past two months...the story of Tesla picking out a German location (about an hour SE of Berlin, somewhat rural area near an autobahn)....for a new plant to produce Tesla cars.
In the beginning, I hinted that the plant is NOT guaranteed and I expected various political/environmental groups to stage a fight against the clearing of the wooded area, and halt the construction of the plant. Various pro-plant governmental folks have said that if this were halted....it'd be a major negative about German enthusiasm for jobs and the economy.
Well....if you watched N-TV (German commercial TV news) this morning, you got the first real hint of trouble brewing.
Tesla has opened a pro-plant information office in Brandenburg (calling it a citizen's office), and are attempting to get ahead of the power curve on public perceptions. The shop....to be in Grunheide...would be a funnel of information about the cars and the plant to the general public.
Reason for this reaction? Already, there's been a demonstration against the location of the plant. Number of folks showing up? Well....it amounts to a couple of dozen (not what you'd call a practical or big showing). But they kinda promised more action in the future, with more people showing up.
If the anti-Tesla situation grew? Just having radicals or pro-damage 'thugs' messing with the construction project would endanger the schedule and trigger Tesla to re-think the whole selection of Germany. Getting this dragged into court and delaying it via the German legal system? Guaranteed to cancel the project. I would imagine that both Poland and Czech are interested in this potential outcome and would welcome Tesla with open arms.
The comical side of this is that Tesla isn't going to manufacture gas or diesel cars.....they'd only make electrical vehicles, which is what the environmentalists have begged for. In some way, it's an idiotic movement to hinder or stop Tesla.
As for the land selected being some 'protected-wetlands'? No, it's not protected, and you are basically talking about a fairly limited piece of property being cleared for the plant. You can go around Germany and find a thousand properties of this size....cleared yearly for either housing developments or new factory operations, and no one ever seems to get radicalized over them.
If Tesla does get peeved over delays or court-action? This will quickly go from page three-type story....to a page-one open forum discussion where the public aggravation over environmentalism goes 'turbo'.
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