With Tesla's move to Austin should we make that "Texas-Germany"culture clash?
From Reuters via Automotive News Europe, October 7:
With final approval for its German factory potentially just weeks away, Tesla’s Elon Musk will make an appearance in the tiny town of Gruenheide this Saturday to host a county fair.
Despite pandemic-related curbs limiting gatherings in Germany to under 5,000 people, Tesla applied for – and got – a permit to have 9,000 at the Oct. 9 ‘Giga-Fest’, after local authorities agreed the event would be Covid safe.
Coming on the heels of officials allowing the company to break ground on its new site before final approval had even been granted, environmental groups say this is just the latest example of Tesla being given too much leeway to act disruptively in Germany – a pattern they worry will continue.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
The pre-approvals Musk has received from local authorities to build without final permission are legal, but rarely used by German firms because of the associated risk: if final approval is not granted, Tesla must pay to tear everything down.
While some bemoan Musk’s approach as throwing German caution to the wind, others – who say German regulations governing planning, jobs and environmental concerns are unnecessarily restrictive – welcome the influence he could have on the country’s business culture.
"I am fully convinced Tesla can have a positive effect on Germany," Brandenburg's economy minister Joerg Steinbach, a prominent advocate of the factory, told Reuters....
....MUCH MORE
If interested see also 2019's:
Musk Says Tesla's First European Production Plant Will Be In Berlin (TSLA)
This is a bit surprising for a few reasons. First off, Tesla's acquisition of German manufacturing automation specialist Grohmann Engineering, did not go smoothly, in part due to real cultural differences. Secondly, although Mr. Musk seems to like being near airports (see SpaceX - LAX tunnel) if he was looking for a big chunk of land, the old Tempelhof Airport space is still empty.
Third, although there seems to be a budding bromance between Musk and VW CEO Dr. Diess, it seems that setting up shop is quite the in-your-face challenge to the German auto industry....
Which was followed by:
September 2020
"Tesla tests the circuits for German energy market push"
....As we noted last year, Elon has to be careful with the differences in business culture as he makes his move in Germany. He's gotten off on the right foot with Volkswagen and it is always good to have the industrial behemoths at least neutral if not on your side. That will also go a long way toward making nice with the banking establishment which as far as corporate boards go have a lot of power.
And that brings us to employees. He can't treat them as poorly as he does the ones in California. The unions will thwart you at every turn if you don't make nice....
