Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday evening met with the
leadership of Brandenburg, the German state where the EV maker's 5.8 billion
euro ($6.9 billion) European gigafactory is being built.
Brandenburg's Economy Minister Joerg Steinbach posted a
picture of Musk along with on Twitter. He said the meeting was also attended by
Brandenburg's state premier Dietmar Woidke.
"Very relaxed evening meeting with @elonmusk, D.
Woidke, co-workers on both sides and myself. In an atmosphere of mutual trust we
discussed the remaining tasks. Thanks to you and your great family for this
visit, Elon!," Steinbach said.
Tesla has faced delays during the construction of the new
plant, located in Gruenheide near Berlin.
Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate to succeed Angela
Merkel as chancellor, is scheduled to visit the site on Friday to meet with
local staff as part of his election campaign.
Due to environmental resistance and red tape, it remains
unclear when the first vehicles will roll off the production line.
Tesla originally planned to start production of the Model Y
in July but the automaker has already pushed back the expected opening to late
2021.
The environmental agency in Brandenburg has yet to give
final approval -- meaning a further delay cannot be ruled out, even into 2022.
Musk has regularly travelled to Germany to check on the
plant's progress and during a visit in May criticized Germany's bureaucracy.
"It's gonna be awesome," Musk said on Twitter on
Wednesday in response to a tweet that cited an article saying that public
opposition to the plant was declining.
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