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The location is a bit weird also. Ingolstadt or similar they’d at least be able to find a lot of staff, I think it may be tricky around Berlin.. Time will tell

The location is a bit weird also. Ingolstadt or similar they’d at least be able to find a lot of staff, I think it may be tricky around Berlin.. Time will tell I guess.

mitjam 5y ago
Wolfsburg is a 1h 7min train ride away. Quite a few commute from Berlin. Berlin has three large universities and some smaller ones. Still, the real automotive hotspots like Stuttgart area would have been more attractive but there was certainly headwind from incumbents.
maverwa 5y ago
For context: Berlin is one (or the) central for IT jobs and startups, but for car manufacturing Ingolstadt, Stuttgart or Wolfsburg would be more „traditional“ choices, since that’s where the big car makers are. Oh, and the Ruhrarea ofc.
- ahartmetz 5y ago
  OTOH, unemployment is average in the region and wages and salaries are below average (maybe not in IT anymore). Traditional car industry regions have low unemployment and high wages and salaries - IG Metall, the traditional union of the car industry, is very strong. It will be interesting to see how Tesla deals with the unions. Wal-Mart had its troubles with that.
G3rn0ti 5y ago
Due to being partly surrounded by a big wall until 30 years ago and being governed by its own state legislature, Berlin's urban sprawl is still pretty limited and land is aplenty in the surrounding state called "Brandenburg". So it's much cheaper to buy land there compared to (South)Western German areas.
wongarsu 5y ago
In Bavaria they would have been one of many major companies. In Brandenburg they are the exciting thing happening in terms of industry, giving them a lot of political support. Also lower wages, both because Brandenburg has low wages and because it's close to the Polish border. Also "Gigafactory Berlin" is only a slight stretch of the truth and has a much nicer ring to it than "Gigafactory Ingolstadt". Being big and flashy is important to Tesla (hence "Gigafactory", not "factory"), and Berlin is just much more recognizable than the alternatives.

The location is a bit weird also. Ingolstadt or similar they’d at least be able to find a lot of staff, I think it may be tricky around Berlin.. Time will tell I guess.

mitjam 5y ago

Wolfsburg is a 1h 7min train ride away. Quite a few commute from Berlin. Berlin has three large universities and some smaller ones. Still, the real automotive hotspots like Stuttgart area would have been more attractive but there was certainly headwind from incumbents.

maverwa 5y ago

For context: Berlin is one (or the) central for IT jobs and startups, but for car manufacturing Ingolstadt, Stuttgart or Wolfsburg would be more „traditional“ choices, since that’s where the big car makers are. Oh, and the Ruhrarea ofc.

ahartmetz 5y ago
OTOH, unemployment is average in the region and wages and salaries are below average (maybe not in IT anymore). Traditional car industry regions have low unemployment and high wages and salaries - IG Metall, the traditional union of the car industry, is very strong. It will be interesting to see how Tesla deals with the unions. Wal-Mart had its troubles with that.

G3rn0ti 5y ago

Due to being partly surrounded by a big wall until 30 years ago and being governed by its own state legislature, Berlin's urban sprawl is still pretty limited and land is aplenty in the surrounding state called "Brandenburg". So it's much cheaper to buy land there compared to (South)Western German areas.

wongarsu 5y ago

In Bavaria they would have been one of many major companies. In Brandenburg they are the exciting thing happening in terms of industry, giving them a lot of political support. Also lower wages, both because Brandenburg has low wages and because it's close to the Polish border. Also "Gigafactory Berlin" is only a slight stretch of the truth and has a much nicer ring to it than "Gigafactory Ingolstadt". Being big and flashy is important to Tesla (hence "Gigafactory", not "factory"), and Berlin is just much more recognizable than the alternatives.