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Tesla CEO Elon Musk scoffed when a reporter asked whether the electric car maker’s plant under construction in Germany would drain the region’s water supply.
“This area has a lot of water, take a look around,” Musk said Friday, and laughed as he visited the site near Berlin.
He added, “No, no, that’s completely wrong. There was water all over here. Does this place look like a desert? It’s ridiculous. It’s raining a lot here.”
The water supply is among the concerns raised by environmentalists in their objection to the German car and battery factory Tesla, which was months behind schedule.
Tesla started cutting trees to clear an area equivalent to 100 football fields early last year and is building the facility above groundwater in the small town of Gruenheide.
Tesla released an annual environmental impact report earlier this week, citing concerns that water is becoming increasingly scarce due to climate change. The company has claimed that it is drawing fewer resources per car produced from the majority of well-known automakers from dedicated auto manufacturing facilities.
“The efficient manufacturing design that we are implementing at our new plants in Texas and Berlin-Brandenburg will result in further reductions in our water use per vehicle,” the company said.
“Our goal is to have low water consumption per vehicle, even at the expense of cell manufacturing,” she added.
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