Tesla's future German site unknowingly housed WWII bombs
Let's hope this doesn't become explosive news.
Everyone's going to have to hold off a little longer at Tesla's site in Germany for its European Gigafactory. Local officials have discovered not one, not two, but seven bombs at the site.
Reuters reported on Thursday that the unexploded bombs are US explosives dropped during World War II -- a relatively common thing to find on new building sites there. They sit just outside of Berlin where Tesla plans to build its European factory, its second facility outside of the US. A representative for the interior minister in the state told Reuters each bomb weighs about 110 pounds and experts will go in to defuse them in the near future.
Since construction hasn't actually started at the site, there likely won't be much of a delay for Tesla's plans. The automaker didn't immediately return a request for comment. CEO Elon Musk has previously said he wants to see Gigafactory 4, as it will be called, operational in 2021.
Expanding its manufacturing footprint has been a recent priority for the company. Tesla has long assembled cars only at its facility in Fremont, California, which previously built GM and Toyota cars. Its second full-scale production plant in China, known as Gigafactory 3, began mass deliveries of the Model 3 earlier this month. (Gigafactory 2 is a solar panel plant in upstate New York.)
Building cars in Germany will also take the electric-car fight straight to German automakers, which are quickly working on their own EVs. Like in China, locally built cars won't be subject to any potential European Union tariffs on the US, should the trade war with the eurozone escalate.
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