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Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Elon Musk, said concerns that his company’s assembly site near Berlin would cause environmental issues including usage of excessive water is exaggerated, pushing back against the critics.
“Sounds like we need to clear up a few things! Tesla won’t use this much net water on a daily basis. It’s possibly a rare peak usage case, but not an everyday event,” tweeted Musk after members of a non-profit organization BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) met Tesla officials last week to discuss possible environmental pollution from the planned Gigafactory.
“Also, this is not a natural forest an- it was planted for use as cardboard & only a small part will be used for GF4 (Gigafactory4),” he added.
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Sounds like we need to clear up a few things! Tesla won’t use this much net water on a daily basis. It’s possibly a rare peak usage case, but not an everyday event. Also, this is not a natural forest — it was planted for use as cardboard & only a small part will be used for GF4.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2020
The Gigafactory site has already invited protests over concerns that the facility will excessively use water and cause deforestation by destroying 300 hectares of forest.
“Giga Berlin will build sustainable energy vehicles using sustainable energy, so the net environmental impact will be extremely positive!” Musk said.
The GF4 Berlin will be the second plant outside the US on which the company is planning to invest 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) and produce 150,000 cars a year. The plant is expected to manufacture SUV Model Y, which could go into production by 2021. The unit could initially employ 3,000 people. The headcount could rise to 7,000.
(With input from agencies)
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