It's a great place to work. Making cool cars.
We really want like ... we will need to hire a lot of people.
So we really want people to think about to work here.
Um and we want to make it as convenient and easy as possible, um
We actually have a train station that comes all the way from berlin and stops right by the entrance.
In fact, maybe I think two train stations
uh, so
uh that makes it very easy if somebody is like living in berlin and wants to come work here.
They can drive or they can go by train
And yeah, we're looking forward to having a wonderful place here
and
I think our the two main contractors Bögl and Goldbeck have done great work.
In fact, you see the how quickly the progress has been going
It's been excellent progress
and
This is using technology of prefabrication
so
while we're preparing the ground, uh, we also
with Bögl and Goldbeck
we created the parts of the building in a prefabricated manner
So that it can actually go up incredibly quickly
Um and still be a very a high quality great building
And how do you feel personally being in Germany?
I love it. It's great. I always have a good time here.
How is X Æ A-12?
Sorry?
How is X Æ A-12?
Oh, oh you mean my kid
That sounds like a password
Yeah, he's great
Um, I think next time i'm gonna bring him, uh, you know, maybe come back in a few months and uh and bring him along
Why are you building this factory in such a hurry? Why do you need to be so fast?
Oh, uh, you know, I believe in speed
You know and I think also
Well, I mean to be more serious for a second. Uh, it's it's I think very important uh for a climate that we move quickly
so
um
It it i'm sorry it matters to
No, but
You know, I think it's very important
um
that we
Accelerate the transition to sustainable energy and that we move as quickly as possible. And so this is the reason for the sense of urgency
um and i've been saying this for a long time, you know, and it's um,
it's good to see uh, some of the companies like vw taking this like very seriously now, um, but
It's still only a very small percentage of the cars that are made are electric. Um, and then there's
Um, you know, I think we'll do maybe more than more than cars here. We'll also pro
I think we'll probably be building some uh batteries, uh, and cells and some other things here
So that'll be good for stationary storage of wind and solar
And essentially the three elements that are needed for a sustainable energy future are sustainable energy generation, uh
energy storage and
sustainable transport, uh
electric cars and eventually electric aircraft and electric and ironically every everything going for electric except rockets, but
You can't have gas cars on mars. But yeah
The reason for the urgency is that it matters if we take a short time or a long time
Um, and if the faster we can make the transition to a sustainable energy future the better for the world.
That's why!
How would you describe your relationship with the ... ?
Do you have a message for the people in this region?
Oh, yes. Well first of all, uh
We're very excited to be in Grünheide
And we appreciate very much the support
And I want to make sure that when we have the big party to celebrate the opening that the whole neighborhood is invited
Everyone's invited. We'll start the party early and like
if you want to have an early party go and then it'll go late and then we'll have like a
sort of a rave thing at the end
um, you know some cool techno or something, uh, but you'll be arranged from like if you you know,
From family event to late night, you know, uh, I think the rave cave is culturally necessary
It is totally
It's cool
What are you doing here today?
Um, I came here to
just see the progress in person. Um, and I was actually meaning to come sooner, but of course, you know pandemic so
I was meaning to come here like three four months ago. Um
You know, i'll be here quite frequently. Um, and um,
The the new airport outstanding is finally opening. Uh, this will be conveniently located
You had a hand on this?
I mean, maybe we set a good example. I don't know.
Okay. How long will you be staying?
Sorry?
How long will you be staying?
i'm, heading out, uh late tonight, so i've been
From the beginning of the week till now so it's been about four four days or so. Um
And um, but it's been great. I love germany. It's great
um, so
um
and i'm just very impressed with the level of talent and capability engineering skill and it's like
you know, I feel like this is
a really, uh ideal place, uh
to have our first uh factory, uh, um in europe and you know, we're also gonna do more than uh,
We'll start off with the factory. But then we're also gonna do some original engineering and design work and I think uh,
you know, I may have mentioned that that the uh,
Berlin paint factory will be the most advanced paint factory
of any car factory in the world. Um, and I think this is gonna be really cool
It's gonna be actually to be totally frank better than the one in the us, but you know, whatever
We'll upgrade the one in the U.S. later
So it's it's it's a really really cool multi-layer paint system
Um, and we're gonna have a color lab here and and it's gonna be really cool. So
Um, you know, it's engineering and design as well as uh manufacturing
What are the plans for the future?
Uh, yeah, I mean, well it's like i'm saying it's um
You know, we build the factory. Um, but then we also uh,
Um, there's a bunch of innovative stuff that we'll be doing here that uh, we'll tell tell you about in in the future
It's it's not just um
You know a copy of the model y it's it's actually a radical redesign of the core technology of building a car
um
And some of this when I do battery day, uh later in september i'll talk about what we're gonna be doing here in berlin
but it'll be the first time that there's gonna be a transport transformation in the
core structural design of the vehicle
It's quite it's quite quite a big thing
So it's it's a like I said both manufacturing, uh, engineering and design as well
Elon Musk, the main problen in the region here is the water...
Okay sure
Do you know about the water problem in the region?
These are gonna be traded on ebay?
Okay
Elon, about those five minutes, I asked about ... please ...
Actually we would also like to know about the environmental issues
like, did you hear about the water issues we're having in Brandenburg?
Did you here about this, that there is actually not enough water?
Yeah, I think um ..
I was trying to get an understanding of the water challanges.
It's quite complex like there's this
like a lignite mite or something like that, uh that's pumping water that previously was
pumping water
From this mine and then that mine was providing water. But now the mine is stopping. Uh, is this making sense?
Are you familiar with this or?
Well, It's not about the mine...
But that's one of the things
It's not enough water basically.
Yeah. Yeah, but the mine was providing water with its pumps or something like that. Um, but I I mean I think fundamentally
We're not in a very dry region, you know
But we're still suffering of droughts
the last three years.
Yeah, but I mean these trees wouldn't be growing if there was no water I mean we're not in the desert
The factory just is not a very intense consumer of water per per square meter
That's you know over the course of the year per square meter. It's not a very intense usage of water
and we'll recycle as much as humanly possible and I think this
I think this will be
If I think i'm pretty confident, it'll be the most environmentally friendly factory in the world. And that's what they are about
And so anything we can do to make it better for the environment we want to do that. Uh
Because that's the mission of the company
Uh, so if yeah, anyone has an advice we're you know
We're very open to criticism and advice for what we can do better. Uh, so let us know, you know
I got to go actually look at the factory
