The contractor for Tesla’s upcoming Giga Berlin facility is now official. The German construction company Arikon, which also took care of tree-felling, will be Tesla’s official contractor for Giga Berlin. What’s more, the first construction crane is now arriving at Giga Berlin.

Tesla’s official contractor for Giga Berlin will be Arikon

This news first came from German outlets on March 3rd. Arikon is a company that deals with all the facets of major construction projects. To name a few, the firm handles “building and civil engineering, electrical engineering, infrastructure and environmental technology”, and “project management”.

According to sources in Grünheide, where Giga Berlin is under construction, Arikon was also the company behind the tree-clearing. As TSLA Times recently reported, these tree-felling efforts at Giga Berlin were finished last week, ahead of schedule.

To complete the tree-felling efforts in time for the deadline, which could delay the project by nine months, Arikon went all-out. According to Arikon’s website, the company was using 36 harvesters and 18 forwarders simultaneously to keep to the “tight schedule”.

Arikon has already been working at Giga Berlin for some time

Arikon was also responsible for harvesting the fallen trees at the Giga Berlin site. According to Arikon’s website, larger logs from Giga Berlin will become construction lumber. The majority of the trees were “fiber harvest” that will go to pulp production.

Treetops with lots of branching as well as shrubs will be chipped and burned for biomass energy production. Arikon’s involvement in the tree-felling and harvesting phase suggests it will handle Giga Berlin construction from start to finish.

A fresh press release from Arikon also confirms some Giga Berlin details that we already knew. For example, it notes that Giga Berlin will occupy a 300-hectare area. Moreover, it also states that Tesla’s vehicle production at the site will start in “mid-2021”.

German Tesla Model Y production will begin in roughly 15 months

Giga Berlin will begin producing Tesla Model Y, which is now making its way to Delivery Centers in the US. Starting vehicle production roughly 15 months from now will be a slower factory buildout than Phase 1 of Giga Shanghai. However, it is still noticeably quicker than the automaker average.

The fact that Giga Berlin will take longer than Giga Shanghai doesn’t come as much of a surprise. First and foremost, German and European construction projects often have to deal with a considerable amount of red tape.

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What’s more, Sundays and Saturday afternoons are supposedly no-work days at the Giga Berlin site. This is in stark contrast to Giga Shanghai, which ran shifts seven days a week, except for during major holidays. No matter what, it seems both Tesla and Arikon are eager to start construction work.

The first crane arrives at Giga Berlin

Recent reports out of Giga Berlin reveal that the first construction crane is now arriving to the site. The following photograph, posted to Twitter by the Tesla observer @tobilindh, shows the crane currently under construction.

The crane can be seen lying on the ground, while two other machines are seemingly working to raise it. It’s clear that more parts connect to the crane in this picture than in the first photo – the cover picture for this article. For reference, the following image shows how the crane will look once it is complete.

Moreover, this comes weeks ahead of the official start of construction. With that said, Tesla can theoretically begin construction before they receive formal approval.

However, Tesla will then have to restore the site in the unlikely event that the automaker does not receive approval. Nevertheless, today – March 5th – marks the last day for citizens of Grünheide to raise objections against the project.

Any complaints will then be dealt with in a mandatory discussion on March 18th. Barring any major complaints Tesla will have to address, groundbreaking could then take place as early as March 19th. Elon Musk has previously said he will attend Giga Berlin’s groundbreaking.