Tesla expands in Germany

Last week, Tesla received the green light to expand its German factory. This is an important approval because it's Tesla's only European production facility. Local councillors from the municipality voted 11-6 to allow the expansion.

Having more capacity is essential for Tesla's continued growth, both for car and battery sales. Tesla's strategy is to double the German site's capacity to 100 gigawatt hours of battery production and one million cars per year, with a plan to build a full railway siding.

Interestingly, around 50 protesters gathered outside the council building to protest the factory's expansion, claiming that making the factory bigger would be bad for the environment. Since February, a handful of protesters have been living in treehouses in the forest, just footsteps away from the Tesla factory, in another attempt to stop the site's expansion.

What do these people do that they can sit around in treehouses for weeks being full-time protestors? The luxury of not being gainfully employed is a side effect of a society that got wealthy from having factories, like Tesla, producing goods in Germany.