If it was a pure job creation program that would be pretty poor value for money, but based on the article there’s a slightly larger play here.
Notability Germany wants to build technological independence, and I imagine part of that is becoming world leaders in battery manufacturing. Even if they don’t end up with Tesla IP, the knowledge that ends up in peoples heads and eventually spreads around the German economy will be incredibly valuable.
Given the EU ban on ICE cars in the near future, and the size Germany’s car manufacturing industry, it makes perfect sense for the German government to spend potential very large sums of money to make sure the next generation of cars is built in Germany. Not just ensuring their automotive industry keeps going, but also make it harder for other economies to compete by ensuring the majority of the manufacturing expertise world wide lives in German brains.
Agreed. I think that battery production, unlike solar panel production, will be highly incentivized today be local. Batteries are very heavy in kg/€ compared to other products.
There are big advantages to keeping this somewhat local. Shipping batteries over seas or cross continent, after the raw materials have also been shopped long distances, will likely be economically inefficient.
I also wonder if batteries can be commoditised the same way solar panels have been. Battery chemistry and manufacturing processes seem to be much more complex than solar panels, additionally there seems to be significantly more trade offs to be made by car manufacturers, than solar panel installers.
I think that they will eventually become components not unlike current solar panels and inverters. I wouldn't underestimate the complexity of solar panels, there's massive continuous innovation just as there is with batteries.
Doesn't it all depend a lot of details that are not published ?
If the 2000 jobs are Fraunhofer/Max Planck Institute battery chemistry researchers and engineers, than this is great news and will help developing a solid industrial battery base in Germany. Well done!
If the 2000 jobs are Gabelstaplerfahrer, and all the tech / research is done in the US, then yeah, the investment is mostly in the construction/services sector, which doesn't seem great.
This is oversimplified, but my guess is that Tesla doesn't want to outsource the core tech/research, so we're going to see more Gabelstaplerfahrer and less Fraunhofer/MPI.
Go look at how their manufacturing line works. They don't to do stupid work. They need to control a highly complex chemical manufacturing plant and likely battery recycling plant.
Researching is not the only work that requires more then manual labor.
Go look at Nevada, after the Gigafactory there are now a number of battery companies located there.
I guess they benefit more than just the jobs (which I am not sure are even all going to German citizens) but it does seem like poor value especially as they are hardly leaving after committing so much.
Notability Germany wants to build technological independence, and I imagine part of that is becoming world leaders in battery manufacturing. Even if they don’t end up with Tesla IP, the knowledge that ends up in peoples heads and eventually spreads around the German economy will be incredibly valuable.
Given the EU ban on ICE cars in the near future, and the size Germany’s car manufacturing industry, it makes perfect sense for the German government to spend potential very large sums of money to make sure the next generation of cars is built in Germany. Not just ensuring their automotive industry keeps going, but also make it harder for other economies to compete by ensuring the majority of the manufacturing expertise world wide lives in German brains.