Between 2020 and 2023, Tesla cut down more than 500,000 trees on the outskirts of Berlin to make room for its German gigafactory. If they had remained standing, the trees would have absorbed enough CO2 to offset the emissions of nearly 3,000 cars per year.
Tesla began construction of its German gigafactory in 2020, and the first car rolled off the assembly line in 2021. To create a large enough site for the facility, the automaker had to cut down thousands of trees to clear the site and prepare the ground for construction. In the years since construction began, this practice has continued to accommodate the expansion of Tesla’s European factory.
The full extent of the tree felling has now been mapped using satellite images of the site, reports the Guardian. According to the British news channel, Tesla felled trees on an area of 813 hectares of forest between March 2020 and May 2023. According to estimates, this corresponds to the loss of around 500,000 trees in the three-year period:
Karolina Drzewo from the campaign alliance “Tesla turns off the tap” said the analysis showed that the company’s production of electric vehicles had caused both local destruction of nature and global damage through the mining of metals. “In one of the driest regions in Germany, too much of the environment has already been destroyed,” she said. “An expansion and thus even more destruction of forests and endangerment of the drinking water protection area must be prevented.”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Antoine Halff, chief analyst at Kayrros, said: “The Tesla factory in Germany has resulted in quite a lot of trees being felled. Of course, you have to put that into perspective when you consider the benefits of replacing combustion engine cars with electric vehicles.”
Since construction began on the Tesla site, the construction has been overshadowed by protests from environmentalists who accuse Tesla of greenwashing. They argue that preserving forests would benefit the planet more than switching to electric vehicles.
Experts estimate that this number of trees could absorb up to 13,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, reports Interesting Engineering. That’s the equivalent of the average annual CO2 emissions of about 2,800 cars here in the United States. Despite this, deforestation at this site could continue, as the website explains:
Despite the massive deforestation, the Brandenburg state environment ministry has approved plans to double the plant’s production capacity to one million cars a year. This decision has only added to the controversy, with dozens of environmental incidents reported at the site, including leaks and spills of diesel fuel, paint and aluminum.
While Tesla acknowledges these incidents, it stresses that no environmental damage occurred and that corrective measures were taken where necessary.
The expansion of Tesla’s European factory has been a controversial issue for months. Environmental activists have repeatedly protested against the site, including sit-ins in key forest areas around the factory. In May, they even stormed the factory.
These measures obviously met with disapproval from company boss Elon Musk. On X, he described the demonstrators on site as “either the dumbest eco-terrorists in the world or puppets of those who do not have good environmental goals.”
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