Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 449 posts

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#231

Post by chmod775 »

Bombthecat wrote: post #180
chmod775 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you said is just absolutely wrong. On every level. You are just repeating the propaganda of the landlord lobby. First off, the number of building permits did actually increase more twofold (by number of apartments) between 2012 and 2018 (the first rent control law took effect in 2015)[1]. Secondly, the rent control law doesn't apply to newly constructed buildings. So suggesting it would somehow decrease incentiv…

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/wohnungsnot-in-berlin-wir... To no one's surprise

That article speaks of a 10% change for a 9 month period on a number that sometimes changed by more than 60% (2013 vs 2014) on a yearly basis in recent years.

In any case a 10% fluctuation can hardly be called "basically cut in half", as you put it. I am reading "10%" as "basically unchanged".

As it stands your argument is not even supported by the sources you are citing yourself.

Edit:

Ahah! When just comparing the single month of September we can find a decrease of about 50% though, according to the article (couldn't find a source for the number though, see below). So at least we have a number like that if we make the window so small that the data we have is beyond useful.

A 50% fluctuation on a monthly basis is perfectly normal though. For instance there was a +120% change in April 2018 / April 2019 (1517 vs 3345)[1] in total permits on a per-apartment basis. You can find plenty of such fluctuations though when just looking at months.

The data is pretty much completely useless on a month-by-month basis and can easily be skewed by a few large projects.

Also I can't figure out where that article is pulling its numbers from, because it quotes "more than 1700 permits for apartments last year in September", while the official statistics[1] just have 1301 when counting any kind of permit. For completeness, here is the press release referred to by the article, which also doesn't contain any number like that: https://www.statistik-berlin-brandenburg.de/pms/2019/19-11-0...

[1]: https://www.statistik-berlin-brandenburg.de/publikationen/St...

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#232

Post by kwhitefoot »

natch wrote: post #144
IOT_Apprentice wrote: post #90

This is all good news. Just wondering about repairs globally as Tesla's start aging and they need to be repaired, or for whatever the current % of their vehicles require service year over year. They must have that info given the amount of telematics they generate AND that they are sole source for maintenance and repair.

With no carburetors, alternators, starter motors, fuel pumps, fuel filters, oil filters, oil leaks, gas leaks, exhaust buildup, spark plugs, timing belts, radiators, head gaskets, mufflers, rings, manifolds, belts... and with brake pads that last forever... it's significantly less maintenance. And Teslas are not designed to milk the consumer for repairs over the years; they are designed to convince consumers that ele…

> and with brake pads that last forever.

Not true if you live in an area where the roads are salted in the winter. Then they don't last any longer than on an ICE car unless you reduce or turn off regenerative braking. I had to have two replaced at the last service because of rust for just that reason and the car is only four years old (Model S).

Tesla's advice was to reduce regen in the winter so that the brakes get used a bit more. A colleague also suggests doing an emergency stop once a year in the summer on a dry road to scour the brakes, not tried it, no idea if it would really be effective.

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#233

Post by _pmf_ »

freeflight wrote: post #107
jcranmer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so if I have this correct, the airport took ~6 years to construct and 9 years and counting to correct problems with its construction? Meaning that it would have been faster to tear the entire building down and rebuild it from scratch than it is taking to remedy the issues? How does that happen‽

That's what happens when political corruption becomes a culture, while nobody wants to seriously talk about it.

Politicians take turns taking lucrative positions within the project companies, "to help".

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#234

Post by watt »

tnolet wrote: post #52

I'm curious about how the massive left/anti-fa movement in Berlin will react to this one. They kept out Google after massive protests. Not sure this is the same thing though. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/24/google-ab... p.s. I'm based in Berlin. Have no horse in the race except that the Google office would have been right down the street of where I work.

It's curious to be sure, but I think they will react positively to Tesla.

1) Berlin is suffering from pollution, especially the diesel. For city dwellers the switch to electric car can't happen fast enough, and German auto makers have been absolutely dragging their heels. Tesla has become a symbol, a fuck-you to BMW, Mercedes, VW and their gas guzzling, diesel pushing ways. It's unbelievable how out of touch the german automakers have been.

2) The factory means some working-class jobs. The left won't see anything wrong with that. It's the coming gentrification that caused the upset against Google.

3) Factory is just outside Berlin, technically in Brandenburg. Near the (forever in construction) BER airport means less concerns about noise, etc.

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#235

Post by jayalpha »

big_chungus wrote: post #116
jayalpha wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your post at all. "so that no one would stifle the company's path towards autonomous EV's." Who is "stifling"? And many companies work on autonomous cars. "This will produce pressure on Europe to ease for instance the AI regulations" What AI regulations in Europe? And what is Europe? The EU? "and basically removed Customs tax" This is not how custom taxes work. The EU is one of the biggest free tra…

> Who is "stifling" No one yet, but it means the company is less beholden to a single regulatory environment. This is generally a good thing. > What AI regulations in Europe? https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-european-strategy-of-r... https://www.ft.com/content/4fd088a4-021b-11e9-bf0f-53b8511af... https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/8/18300149/eu-artificial-int... https://www.loc.gov/law/help/artificial-intelligence/…

"If a whole other continent joins, it will be the biggest?"

Yes. The biggest free trade zone. Read the news from time to time. The EU-Mercosul FTA is supposed to be signed but may not due to Austria and partly also to France.

It may be the biggest already: https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2177749/eu-...

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#236

Post by reallydontask »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #191
iagooar wrote: post #168

It is great news for Berlin (and Brandenburg) as it will bring (big) money and attract talent. It might even attract people from Poland which is only an hour drive away and has a large pool of very talented and experienced engineers. So far besides maybe Siemens there wasn't too much industry here, which is more present in the south of the country. Being outside of the city center it won't contribute too much to gent…

I think it makes sense from that angle but also from the angle that Germany is rich grounds for poaching people that are currently working for one of the other big car manufacturers. E.g. VW just opened a huge plant for producing their EVs in Zwickau which would about 300km away. Brandenburg as a state is an interesting. Crucially, it's not the state of Berlin (Berlin is s city state within the German federation). Th…

> (Berlin is s city state within the German federation).

Is that a more literal translation of Bundesrepublik Deutschland?

In English, Germany is normally referred to as Federal Republic of Germany?

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#237

Post by romanovcode »

iagooar wrote: post #168

It is great news for Berlin (and Brandenburg) as it will bring (big) money and attract talent. It might even attract people from Poland which is only an hour drive away and has a large pool of very talented and experienced engineers. So far besides maybe Siemens there wasn't too much industry here, which is more present in the south of the country. Being outside of the city center it won't contribute too much to gent…

Brandenburg is one of the poorest regions in Germany. Berlin as a city brings negative GDP to country.

I think they can just get it for (relatively) cheap there and that would be the main reason.

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#238

Post by wcoenen »

romanovcode wrote: post #237
iagooar wrote: post #168

It is great news for Berlin (and Brandenburg) as it will bring (big) money and attract talent. It might even attract people from Poland which is only an hour drive away and has a large pool of very talented and experienced engineers. So far besides maybe Siemens there wasn't too much industry here, which is more present in the south of the country. Being outside of the city center it won't contribute too much to gent…

Brandenburg is one of the poorest regions in Germany. Berlin as a city brings negative GDP to country. I think they can just get it for (relatively) cheap there and that would be the main reason.

GDP is comparable to the concept of revenue for a company, which is not the same as profit/loss. Revenue cannot be negative unless the company is charging negative prices.

I think what you meant is that Berlin has a net inflow of tax money.

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#239

Post by konschubert »

lnsru wrote: post #222
iagooar wrote: post #168

It is great news for Berlin (and Brandenburg) as it will bring (big) money and attract talent. It might even attract people from Poland which is only an hour drive away and has a large pool of very talented and experienced engineers. So far besides maybe Siemens there wasn't too much industry here, which is more present in the south of the country. Being outside of the city center it won't contribute too much to gent…

It’s interesting what kind of talent one needs for a factory. Engineers? I doubt... These will be simple workers, couple equipment operators with some education. All the blueprints are coming from Tesla’s HQ anyway, so not much engineering needed. There is also Tesla in Germany that does all the engineering: https://teslagrohmannautomation.de/de/

I think we shouldn’t underestimate the amount of engineering knowledge needed on-site in a factory as big as this one.

Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin

#240

Post by willyt »

usrusr wrote: post #110
jcranmer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so if I have this correct, the airport took ~6 years to construct and 9 years and counting to correct problems with its construction? Meaning that it would have been faster to tear the entire building down and rebuild it from scratch than it is taking to remedy the issues? How does that happen‽

According to lore, it all started with the architect deciding against the tried and tested usage of little chimney-like structure on top of the terminal roofs for fire protection de-fuming, insisting instead on some novel, less visible solutions for aesthetic reasons. Those then caused all kinds of follow-up issues, eventually leading into the construction equivalent of the perpetual bugfix cycle, where every fix bri…

Emergency smoke ventilation is a solved problem, ‘little chimneys on the roof’ are one of many different solutions; there are lots of different strategies. So that sounds like nonsense. Source, I’ve worked on mega projects like this. If it’s true that someone decided to swap departures with arrivals once the building was already on site, I would say that’s your problem right there. Whoever is responsible for that caused this mess. I would hazard a guess that the airport was originally briefed to be designed as primarily a government funded transport interchange, someone decided it should make some money to help pay for the costs and the only way to make room for the extended corridors full of shops was to turn the design concept upside down.
Post reply on HN