TU-TESL

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The CEO recently announced in Germany that he will build a super factory near Berlin to produce electric vehicle batteries, power transmission systems and vehicle assembly. This is Tesla's first super factory in Europe, and the fourth super factory in the world after the United States, New York and Shanghai. Can musk replicate the successful experience of building a factory in Shanghai in 10 months? Can Tesla become a catfish in the European new energy vehicle market and shake its dominant position? Tesla has been looking for a suitable production site for its high-end electric vehicles in Europe, and the UK was kicked out of the game by musk early because of the uncertain prospect of leaving Europe. Berlin is not a special choice for musk, and the Tesla team is more inclined to be in the western part of Germany, bordering France, Belgium and the Netherlands. For several months, Tesla has been negotiating with German states, from Lower Saxony, the home of Volkswagen, to Berlin, offering various preferential terms and using private relations to persuade Tesla to enter. Finally, Tesla reduced more than 30 candidate locations in Europe to 10, and sent multiple negotiation teams to conduct intensive consultations. Finally, on November 12, at the gold steering wheel award ceremony held in Berlin, musk unexpectedly announced that the official site of Tesla super factory is Brandenburg, located in a small place called grunheide in the southeast of Berlin, not far from the famous unfinished project Berlin new airport. "We are definitely building faster than Berlin's new airport," Musk joked at the ceremony Musk is not interested in the preferential game of German states. What he needs is speed. Berlin's new airport has been delayed for 13 years and is still in the end, which is the most unbearable thing for him. Just hours before musk announced the launch of the super plant, Tesla officially submitted a government investment subsidy application to the investment bank of Brandenburg, which must also be approved by the European Commission. Tesla didn't disclose how much money Brandenburg paid, but the industry initially estimated that the investment subsidy given by Brandenburg to Tesla exceeded 1 billion euros based on the subsidy Siemens received after the establishment of the technological innovation industrial park in Berlin. At the same time, Tesla's super factory will create 6000 to 7000 jobs for the local area. In addition, Tesla will build an automotive design and Engineering Center in Berlin. As an old base of the global automobile industry, Germany once regarded diesel vehicles as the future direction of the automobile industry to reduce carbon emissions, so it was not active in the R & D investment and market cultivation of electric vehicles, and it started to lag behind the United States and China. In the third quarter of this year, sales of electric vehicles in the European market rose by 124% to 90623, but still accounted for only 3% of new car registrations, according to the European automobile manufacturers Union. In addition, the German automobile trade union is worried that the popularity of electric vehicles will lead to large-scale unemployment in the traditional automobile manufacturing industry. Compared with the traditional fuel vehicles, which have hundreds of thousands of parts, electric vehicles have fewer parts and simple assembly. With the wide application of automatic robots, the manpower needed for the production of electric vehicles will be greatly reduced. According to a report provided by the labor and Employment Research Institute of the Federal Labor Office in 2018, with the overall transformation of Germany to electric vehicles, by 2035, 114000 jobs will be cut and Germany's GDP may fall by 0.6%. Therefore, the development of electric vehicles in Germany is facing certain political pressure. But this is a fleeting opportunity at a critical time in the transition of the European car market to electric vehicles. Whether it's musk or Germany's local automobile manufacturing industry, they are aware of this. In early November, Volkswagen announced that it would invest 60 billion euros over the next five years in the R & D and production of electric vehicles and automobiles, as well as in the digital upgrading of factories. In the next decade, VW will launch 75 and 60 hybrid vehicles to the market. It is estimated that by 2029, the sales volume of VW's pure electric vehicles will reach 26 million and that of hybrid vehicles will reach 6 million. VW's factory in Zwickau, Saxony, is undergoing digital production module transformation. In 2021, it will fully put into electric vehicle production, with an annual output of 330000 vehicles. At that time, it will become the largest and highest capacity electric vehicle manufacturer in Europe. In addition, two other VW plants in Germany are also undergoing upgrading, while VW's plants in China and the United States will also increase production of electric vehicles. At the government level, in order to achieve the EU carbon emission reduction goals, Germany will take new energy vehicles as the main development direction in the future. Merkel's government announced in early November that it would invest 3.5 billion euros to expand the electric vehicle public and strive to build 1 million charging piles by 2030. At present, the total number of charging piles in Germany is only 21000. By 2030, Germany is expected to have 7 to 10 million electric vehicles. The German government also plans to increase car purchase subsidies for some small electric vehicles from 2021. According to the agreement, consumers will buy electric vehicles with the price lower than 40000 euros, the subsidy amount will be increased from 4000 euros at present to 6000 euros, and the subsidy for hybrid vehicles will be increased from 3000 euros to 4500 euros. For electric vehicles priced at more than 40000 euros, the subsidy will increase by 25%. More than $60000 in electric vehicles are not covered by the subsidy. Tesla has set up a factory in Germany. On the one hand, Tesla wants to seize the opportunity of European electric vehicle market, and more importantly, it focuses on Germany's strong automobile technology reserve, talent advantage and industrial chain. As early as a few years ago, musk admitted that Germany has a strong foundation of engineering and manufacturing, and began to lay out quietly in Germany. In 2016, Tesla acquired grohmann, a famous automation technology company of Prum, which is also an important supplier of Bosch, Daimler and so on. In addition, Mr. musk recruited Peter hochholdinger, an executive from the company, to be in charge of Tesla's production at the agent factory in Vermont, California. In only three years, he straightened out the production process of Tesla's factory and increased the number of Tesla 3 vehicles to 1000. This also makes mask impressed with the process management and talent advantages of the German automobile industry. However, in spite of the policy support of Brandenburg state government and hundreds of millions of euros of subsidies, there are still big uncertainties whether Tesla's super plant can replicate the success of the Shanghai plant. First, the competition in the electric vehicle market is intensified. Tesla 3 entered the European market in March this year, and soon became the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe. However, in the list of the best-selling cars in Europe, Tesla 3 did not enter the top ten, and its sales volume in September this year was only 17500. At present, Tesla's largest market in Europe is Norway. Thanks to the high subsidies provided by the government, electric vehicles are selling very well in Norway. In the Norwegian market, the sales volume of VW's new energy version is closely following Tesla's. At present, in the European market segmentation field, in the high-end electric vehicle market, some taycan and Jaguar's i-pace, while the low-end market is preempted by Volkswagen's ID3 and Renault's Zoe. After the production of Tesla's German super factory, Tesla will mainly produce the affordable Tesla Y-type. Facing the picky European customers, Tesla still faces many difficulties in positioning. Secondly, with the example of Berlin's new airport, the construction and construction efficiency of Tesla super factory still faces the risk of German bureaucracy. For example, in today's electronic banking, Tesla's application for government subsidies submitted to the Bank of Brandenburg must be in accordance with the tradition of German banks, all in paper and written form, so the efficiency can be seen. In addition, the German automobile trade union has a very strong voice, and the German labor law gives workers great autonomy in management. Low wages, rough layoffs, 996 working system, casual overtime, opposition to trade unions and so on. Mask's controversial management methods in the US agent factory in Vermont are obviously not suitable for Germany. German public opinion is not only very good about Tesla super factory settled in Brandenburg, but also doubts about the uncertainty of super factory project. Media pointed out that there is a large Nature Reserve near the greenhead plant site. Whether the super plant can pass the environmental assessment and whether it will cause protests and obstacles from environmental organizations is still unknown. "Spiegel weekly even questioned that," Musk has always been known for his blatant promises. He may be sincere or just arrogant How credible is mask's promise to build a super factory in Brandenburg - in Germany, let alone Germany's relatively high labor costs and energy prices? " According to online analysis of Spiegel, it's hard to say who will have more advantages in the development of electric vehicle industry in the "new forces" and traditional automobile industry represented by Tesla. The advantage of a century old store like Volkswagen lies in large-scale mass production and quality, while Tesla, known as subverting the automobile industry, has its advantages in driving style, computer technology and the Internet. Herbert diess, CEO of Volkswagen, also said that the strength of Volkswagen lies in its hardware, while that of Tesla lies in its software. There is a wide space for cooperation between the two. Volkswagen will meet with musk to discuss the possibility of cooperation and shareholding.