Elon Musk visits Germany and meets with heads of state about the “gigafactory”

FRANKFURT, Aug. 11 (Reuters) – Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), met on Wednesday evening with the management of Brandenburg, the German state where the group’s 5.8 billion European gigafactory is being built. ‘euros ($ 6.9 billion), according to its Minister of the Economy Joerg Steinbach said on twitter.

Steinbach, who posted a photo de Musk with the tweet, said the meeting was also attended by Brandenburg State Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke.

“Very relaxed evening with @elonmusk, D. Woidke, colleagues from both sides and myself. In an atmosphere of mutual trust, we discussed the remaining tasks. Thank you and your big family for this visit, Elon! ” Steinbach mentioned.

Steinbach’s comments come after public flight data previously showed the arrival of Musk’s jet in Germany, where Tesla faces delays in attempting to commission the new manufacturing site.

Armin Laschet, the Conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, is due to visit Tesla’s site in Gruenheide near Berlin on Friday to meet local staff as part of his election campaign.

Due to environmental resistance and red tape, it is still unclear when the first vehicles will roll off the site’s production line. Read more

Tesla has already postponed the scheduled opening to the end of 2021. The Brandenburg environmental agency has yet to give its final approval, which means a further delay cannot be ruled out, even until 2022.

Musk has traveled to Germany regularly to check on the factory’s progress and, during a visit in May, criticized the German bureaucracy. Read more

“It’s gonna be awesome”, Musk said on twitter Wednesday in response to a tweet citing an article saying public opposition to the plant was waning.

Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Nadine Schimroszik and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Richard Pullin

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.