Translation: Tesla appears to be very nervous about dealing with IG Metall. André Thierig, head of Tesla's only European factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, travelled to the US specifically to record a video with company boss Elon Musk. In it, both warn of the alleged risks of a strengthening union for the site: the factory would not be closed, but it would probably not be expanded either. At the same time, new production figures cast a critical light on the situation in Grünheide. **According to information from data service provider Inovev, which is available to Handelsblatt, only 149,040 Teslas were built there in 2025 – almost 30 per cent less than in the already weak previous year. According to the annual financial statements, the plant near Berlin was only operating at 56.3 per cent capacity in 2024, with a profit margin of just 0.74 per cent. With the decline in unit sales, the calculated capacity utilisation would have fallen to as low as 39.7 per cent.** The plant is estimated to be designed for 375,000 electric cars per year. The Inovev data may contain estimates that will be adjusted later. Tesla did not respond to a request from Handelsblatt for information on production figures. Plants that are permanently underutilised are considered particularly burdensome for car manufacturers' balance sheets in the industry. **The figures clearly contradict Thierig's public statements. The former Ford manager has been emphasising for months that the site, which exclusively manufactures the mid-range Model Y SUV, is flourishing. ‘We are ramping up production, not ramping it down,’ the plant manager said recently, pointing out that weaker demand in Europe is being offset by other markets such as Turkey, Canada and countries in Southeast Asia.** However, a look at the registration statistics paints a mixed picture. Tesla was able to increase Model Y registrations by a total of almost 70,000 units in countries such as South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Norway and Turkey. However, demand in the three largest car markets – the US, China and Europe – slumped by more than 155,000 vehicles, writes Handelsblatt. This means that the declines in established markets cannot be compensated for. Among the reasons for the slump in Europe are CEO Musk's controversial political involvement with the support of US President Donald Trump and, in this country, the AfD. In addition, competition from traditional and emerging Chinese manufacturers in the electric car market is growing. In September 2025, Thierig emphasised that Tesla would not have to announce bad news comparable to that of other German car manufacturers with job cuts. However, the start of 2026 gives little cause for optimism: in January, Tesla sold only around 5,700 electric cars across Europe – more than 40 per cent less than a year earlier.
How do they still sell 5,700 units per month in Europe? Whot tf is buying this tainted brand?
Good.
They should consider only building the chassis and let other manufacturers put their logo on the body... like the way the old coach's started... jaguar, rolls roys... guess that ship has long sailed away, their focus should be about the battery and manufacturing - let other small time companies put their spin on them, they seem to have given up trying to compete, their finished product lacks quality
Remember that every European country has far right national idiot party. Some of their supporters can afford new cars.
There are a lot of people who do not follow news that closely and Elon is not as widely reported about in Europe as he is in US. Some people still know him as that guy that does rockets and are clueless about his real nature.
At what utilization percentage does the factory become unprofitable? Or to put it simply, what %capacity does Giga Berlin need to break even with running costs?
"I know what! We'll close it down and blame the workers for wanting to unionize. That'll cover up the mess I've made!"
Still, some idiots agreed with him or totally don’t care about politics.
Also Sales in Switzerland are considerable - they have a history of cozying up to fascists
Supposedly 70% is around where it becomes unprofitable. Either way, given their sales are in decline and they don't have shit in the pipeline, this is the best their business will ever be again in Europe. Automakers have a really bad tendency to implode quickly by the time cracks show, they're basically the Titan sub.
BEVs are generally increasing, Teslas still offer a good price/quality ratio if you need a BEV but can't afford a German one.
Still many people in the world think Elon Musk is a genius and worship him.
And yet they are pushing deliveries up to 3 months beyond the initial expected delivery
[deleted]
They really do need to lift the curtain on that [new logo.](https://imgur.com/a/rFp8ZLA) Gotta embrace who you are.
You could say Titan-ic
A lot of people don't care, at least here in Denmark. Some even buy the idea that he is doing a good job.
I think you‘re right.
because the world is bigger than reddit and they are good cars
Unfortunately for Tesla most of these people also hate EVs.
They don't even manufacture battery cells in Europe. Those Teslas are all using third party cells. They claim they'll start to soon but I wouldn't hold my breath. Fact is Tesla has squandered whatever lead they had on batteries. At this point there's no hope they catch up with China or even Korea.
Yeah that'll be right after his mars base.
Heil-ting everything?
Teschlaff
I really doubt Tesla offers better value than VW or Renault at this point.
They offer insanely good deals that they don’t publish online - my neighbour got one…
Model Raus?
Price-wise!
I'm looking at prices and I'm just not seeing it.
Elon will cut the Berlin expansion. . . Don't unionize!!!
That means they have room for production expansion, obviously the stock will jump $150B on this news!
5-day weekends LOL
jesus christ... it still amazes me how it's stock is so high
You know the whole, "America needs to own Greenland even if we have to go to war with Denmark to get it" thing? That isn't actually an old man's crazy ramblings coming out of left field. No, there are rich and powerful people pushing to control Greenland and it begins with the fact that Tesla needs rare Earth elements to build lithium ion batteries and right now that means kissing the ass of China to get it. But Greenland is setting on a large deposit of almost everything they need and after spending 20 years failing to establish a puppet government in Afghanistan to get access to their rare Earth elements, they're now squarely looking at Greenland. Sure, lots of them are hoping Europe will blink to appease a crazy man. It worked for Hitler when he demanded the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. But know there are a plenty of rich and powerful people who are more than willing to kill lower class American kids and a lot of fucking Danes if it means they can strip mine Greenland for free over continuing to pay the Chinese for everything they need to get richer. And if you think I'm crazy, look at all the shit America has done in the Gulf since British Petroleum had the CIA overthrow a democratically elected government in Iran in 1953 just to guarantee access to oil. Also know one of Tesla's largest shareholders (Larry Ellison and family) now controls TikTok and two of the largest news organizations in America not owned by Rupert Murdoch (who's son sits on Tesla's Board of Directors). When the time comes to actually go to war with Denmark, Americans are going to get spoon-fed news about how important it is to kill you. But hey, by all means, keep feeding the beast.
Elon threatening the union by saying they won’t expand. Good times.
its ok, they're not a car company anymore :/
Well, I sold my X.
Tesla is propped up by the stock price and a huge cash pile (from selling their stock). As long as shareholders are willing to bankroll blunders, Tesla can stay afloat.
> the world is bigger than reddit That's kind of funny, even if technically true. The reality is that Reddit is a huge site with 400+ million weekly active users, and as many as a billion monthly active users. > they are good cars They are objectively not. Tesla finished at the bottom of the quality reports.
> Elon will cut the Berlin expansion Did you miss the headline? They won't be expanding anywhere, much less in Germany. >Don't unionize!!! Unionization is just an excuse to do what they already planned, especially since it's a dog whistle to some people.
Is it the same thing for European right wing when compared to American right wing with their trucks? Does right wing in European prefer gas car?
It was a joke. . . Elon threatened to cut Berlin expansion if they unionized. . . Elmo is already using <50% space
Yep. Most of the freaky right wing parties in Europe are also climate change deniers, and owning an EV would not play to their fantasies.
The stock price only lasts as long as the illusion does
For starters the folks who are working in the factory are the grand children of folks who had no problem giving the musk salute and they had plenty of support thought Europe back then too. The names may change but the ideologies never do.
These left-wing Americans coming to all these Tesla threads are becoming rather annoying. For the price, there is very little competition. Here an ID3 costs you the same as an Model 3. They are an world apart in terms of reliability and comfort.
And the illusion only lasts as long as the stock doesn’t crash.
The illusion is built on Elon and how Tesla is the future, and there will be a tipping point.
Isn't it likely that the capacity will just switch to Optimus robots like it has in Fremont, California?
“The quality reports” lol And they finish at the top of owner satisfaction reports. They are objectively good cars. Model Y has been the best of one of the best selling cars in the world the last 3 years.
Non of those people buy EVs.
Nazis are still buying it
30%? Thought ide be like 60% 😄
id.3 is highly reliable and very comfortable.
>No, there are rich and powerful people pushing to control Greenland and it begins with the fact that Tesla needs rare Earth elements to build lithium ion batteries and right now that means kissing the ass of China to get it. This is all nonsense. There are no rare earth metals in Greenland and the US does not have the technology to refine them anyway, even if there were. Only China can do it.
You are oh so confidently wrong. https://www.csis.org/analysis/greenland-rare-earths-and-arctic-security https://www.newsweek.com/map-greenland-rare-earth-minerals-compare-world-11320396 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/23/trump-greenland-china-rare-earth-mineral.html Google AI Slop summary below. The key to the summary is "vital for EVs". Taking Greenland just became a lot more important too now that we're bombing the fuck out of major oil refineries driving up gas prices which are sure to make EVs desirable in the US again. That, of course, is happening right after every other US car manufacturer not named Tesla just wrote off their EV manufacturing. *Greenland holds some of the world's largest untapped deposits of rare earth elements (REEs), including neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium, estimated at 36 million tonnes in total, with 1.5 million tonnes currently considered proven.* *Located mainly in the south, these critical minerals are vital for EVs, defense tech, and renewable energy. Major sites like Kvanefjeld face delays from environmental concerns and a 2021 uranium ban.*
As I said, it's totally irrelevant anyway. The US can't refine them. It would have to send the ore to China to be refined.
LMFAO. You just don't grasp how America works. America also couldn't build the Panama Canal or put a man on the moon and yet here we are. The fact that someone has deemed "something can't be done" is just a detail that simply... Doesn't. Fucking. Matter. If there's large profits to be had, we will absolutely build refineries we don't currently have faster than Las Vegas can put up a new Casino. It's never a matter of "can we do it" so much as what's the most profitable way to do it. And hell, there's years of strip mining that can happen before refineries needs to actually go online anyway so I assure you nobody planning this even gives a shit about that step yet. BTW you want to know what makes shit really profitable? Stealing the raw material.
>You just don't grasp how America works. Your country is deindustrialised. Its infrastructure is falling apart and it doesn't have enough electricity. It's done.
Login is required to comment.
Login with Google