GigaBerlin Shows off Rail

Tesla recently held a public information event at a hall in Hangelsberg, about 10 minutes away from the GigaBerlin facility.

The event was centred around about 40 Tesla Employees who were running stations devoted to individual issues of public concern regarding the factory. Traffic impacts, reforestation efforts, water supply issues, and environmental protection procedures were all subjects open to questions from anyone attending.

And one of the more interesting subjects was the Gigafactory’s infrastructure; specifically its new integration with the robust German rail system.

The new plan is to build a new freight yard at the factory, that could accommodate simultaneous loading of up to three trains across six tracks.

Tesla believes they can get up to ten trains loaded and shipped out of GigaBerlin per day, hauling over 2,500 vehicles to other delivery centers across Europe. This is mostly down to the trains being able to transport over 250 vehicles each, whereas the average transport truck can only handle around eight.

And the best part about rail? Much lower CO2 emissions.

With just outbound rail, Tesla estimates they could reduce 71% of CO2 emissions from transportation per year, or about 29,000 tonnes of CO2.

But they also intend on having inbound lines as well - because why not? The plan is currently four unloading tracks and two associated cranes to help with unloading of container goods and other materials. Up to 12 trains could be unloaded at this facility daily, resulting in a 53% reduction on the CO2 emissions from inbound shipping, or up to 40,000 tonnes per year.

Europe as a whole has spent a lot of time and money building a strong rail system, and Tesla has always worked towards lowering CO2 emissions, so a rail here just makes sense.

Add to that, GigaBerlin is ramping up their production. In June, they reported that they hit the 1000 units per week benchmark, and have announced a goal of hitting 5000 units per week by Q1, 2023. 

That’s going to require lots of infrastructure work to handle.