Today is one of the most important days in the history of Tesla Inc as the company's Gigafactory Berlin is officially opening two years after breaking ground.
The launch of Tesla's first European production hub comes after the biggest investment in a German car factory in recent history: €5 billion or $5.5 billion.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be handing over to customers the first Model Y electric crossovers built at the new facility located in Grünheide, 25 miles east of Berlin's city center. In a March 21 tweet, he said he was "excited" to hand over the first Giga Berlin-made production cars.
Besides Elon Musk, the opening ceremony on Tuesday afternoon will be honored at the highest level, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck, and other high-ranking federal and local authorities in attendance, according to Reuters.
The plant's official opening, which Elon Musk had hoped would happen eight months ago but was delayed by environmental (mainly water supply) and bureaucracy issues, comes as the CEO has announced his Master Plan Part 3 for Tesla, which should see the EV maker scaling to "extreme size."
Tesla plans to hire 12,000 workers at the vehicle assembly factory and adjacent battery plant in Grünheide, making the site the biggest employer in the state of Brandenburg. When it reaches full capacity, it will build 500,000 EVs annually and generate 50 GWh of battery power, surpassing all other similar plants in the country.
Gallery: Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg County Fair
Mind you, Elon Musk has warned that ramping up production will take longer than the two years it took to build the plant. JPMorgan forecasts that the factory would build around 54,000 cars in 2022, ramping up to 280,000 in 2023 and 500,000 by 2025.
Local authorities gave Tesla the final go-ahead on March 4 to begin production at Gigafactory Berlin, provided it met several conditions on issues including water use and air pollution control.
According to the delivery day event's official schedule released last week, there will be a factory tour from 11 am to 1 pm local time, followed by a brief address from 1 pm to 1:20 pm, Model Y handovers (1:30 pm-2:30 pm), a group photo (3 pm), and celebrations (3 pm-9 pm)—likely including a rave party and some dance moves from Elon Musk.
Expect Tesla to reveal new information about the made-in-Germany Model Y and the factory today, so stay tuned as we will cover anything newsworthy from the event.
