It doesn't get discussed....not in business journals or news outlets in Germany.
The amount of effort to hinder or halt it? It's surprising that it's not zero, or marginally there....it's actually a daily topic in the region. Various groups have some type of agenda in play....either expecting to hinder Tesla enough that they get financial support, or some type of insider access. So far, it's not apparent that Tesla will pay any group off.
If they do fail, and the plant is shutdown before it even produces one single car? It would readily prove the belief that trying to bring a jobs opportunity into eastern Germany (since the wall went down) is physically impossible. I think a fair number of western German companies have had this belief (for well over thirty years).
A lot of this revolving around politicization that remains from the DDR era (before 1989)? I might argue that point is existing.
Some of this goes to the amount of pollution and abuse of industrial sites that existed before 1989. Some residents in the east still remember how bad it was and no one in the government (DDR) was willing to stand up or do anything.
Finally, some of this simply goes to the idea that governmental or societal control needs to be mounted upon companies....to realize 'goals'. I'm not going to say it's right or wrong. Certainly, safety and clean production needs to be always in the priorities of a company.
But here's the thing....for thirty years, eastern Germans have talked about the creation of jobs, and it's been a lousy effort by the CDU and SPD governments. So along comes this one company (an outsider, and American) that will do the effort that the public wanted. The key to the plan though? That company didn't want to be in the shadow of some massive urban center like Halle, Rostock, or Dresden. So the chances or odds....are still in play? Correct.
If enough barriers occur and the plant fails? I would suggest that it'll be a decade before another such attempt will occur.
3 comments:
Musk should have just built the factory in Poland to avoid the German bureaucracy and stifling unions. Not to mention the lack of an East German work ethic. This whole thing could turn into another Berlin airport situation.
Tesla wanted to be seen as a major car company, no longer a niche manufacturing firm, also Germany is the place worldwide recognized for precision and high quality skilled workers. Choosing Poland would cut the red tape but would give you none of the above, winning in Germany puts you at the top of the podium, it is an image thing more than anything in my opinion.
I would have picked Prague. High quality technicians locally, and city would have given Musk just about anything he wanted. I do agree....whole thing is possible to repeat the BER construction business.
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