C. E. O. And product architect of tesla known for its sleek electric cars but other is cutting edge cars everything thats said to be tesla whats behind the hype thats our topic today on made although he didnt stop the company the name most closely associated with tesla is of course it all must himself invested millions in his business is before becoming its c. E. O. And although tesla has experienced its share of ups and downs over the years best is a love him that despite his success and numerous ventures apparently its not money that interests mr musk he wants to save the world. A rocket to mars traveling through a tube mind reading who could be behind these projects. Musk entrepreneur billionaire inventor. President also i think what sets him apart is his willingness to take risks and that he uses his own money. Because experience as a serial entrepreneur gives an easy access to Venture Capital in the u. S. Thats obviously a huge advantage and that combination makes him dangerous to establish players like say the german auto industry. Started tesla without any industry experience at 1st it met with derision as almost everything went wrong but eventually it evolved into a very serious rival to prestigious german carmakers. When theres something he cant do or something thats not working like in his car Manufacturing Processes he hires people or teams to fix it. Before he acquires companies and integrates them into teslas Manufacturing Processes. And now they no longer have as many problems as they had in 2015 the leader of a. Mosque is celebrated as a visionary nowadays and is emblazoned on many a t. Shirt his fans seem to think their idol can solve the worlds problems. Musk has even said to have inspired movie heroes he even featured albeit briefly in a film. Those are some of this is definitely down to his personality extroverted always forging ahead maybe even managed and i dont know. He also. To indulge his own myth. When he visited germany there was a lot of showmanship. He cultivates the myth himself i think for the. Last was born in Pretoria South Africa in 1971 the son of a model and an engineer he devoured books at an early age was fascinated by technology and even as a child was already interested in rockets. He says he used to be bullied at school. He and his brother set up a company as teenagers and even made money with that. Must studied physics and economics in canada. Then he moved to the usa and got rich one of the startups he was involved with was the forerunner of the Payment Service pay pal. He started a ph d. At stanford but soon dropped out. Mind reading is one of his dreams and so he started by having chips inserted into pigs brains but his mind reading a good idea. How do People Living near his factories feel. And how does tesla treat its workers just as real and thats a difficult issue because these serial entrepreneurs like say steve jobs arent always the nicest people and theyre usually quite a mix theyre often fascinating but they also put people under pressure and expect a lot from them. Who are last. With hard work and probably a lot of pressure some of musks. Seemingly crazy ideas have become Successful Companies space x. For example may not be taking tourists to mars yet but it is working with nasa. Innovation and learning fast go together hes adopted the principle fail fast learn fast from american startup culture. When you see how big his companies have become it looks like thats something hes passed on to his employees. The question is what idea will do one must come up with next to change the world. Or in the meantime a prolific innovator is busy getting a huge manufacturing plant built close to berlin that will produce batteries and power trains for use in tesla vehicles some of which will also be sampled their construction started even before final planning permission was granted the politicians are excited about all the new jobs being created especially in a part of germany that structurally weak not everyones rolling out the red carpet however many locals have serious concerns about the impact the production side will have on the environment. Haida is a Small Community just outside ballin with less than 9000. 00 residents. City dwellers come here on the weekend to stroll. This is a Water Conservation area and home to over 100 birds rioting. And it seemed to be home to europes biggest factory for electric cars work on the new test that plant is on the way although regional forest he said not yet granted final Planning Commission stephan show and his colleagues are dead set against the factory and say approval should not be granted they say the forests and freshwater ecosystem are at risk section 8 a of the federal emission protection act allowed tesla to make an early start. Theyre just hoping nothing gets in their way with the huge and nobody knows what the impact below the surface will be its environmental russian roulette. That. These opponents of the factory often meet here in the woods a couple of kilometers from the construction site they say the location is entirely unsuited to this kind of development. As of the freshwater ecosystem here is complex and so far its been protected from industrial development. We now suddenly mr musk wants to build here and only here. This was presumably the only site that appealed to him and the powers that be are doing everything in their power to oblige him. The fear is that the enormous new plant will use so much ground water that the lakes and streams will just dry up and that more trees will be cut down to make way for further facilities test and wants to set up an Industrial Park around this plant. Tesla aims to start producing cars here what he calls a gigafactory by summer 2021500000 a year further details are in short supply we asked for an interview with a Company Representative but never got an answer tesla project manager alexander did testify before the Brandenburg State Parliament offering a reg limps into the companys plans. To have cutting edge casting systems an extremely efficient body shop and the next generation paying shop and a 1000000000 color turn depth and complexity never seen before in volume production cars its just the beginning. Thats its not that im fun. Many objections have been raised the water issue is one of the most important. According to official filings tesla says that to build 500000 cars it will need 1400000. 00 cubic metres of Drinking Water thats about as much as a town of such a 1000 uses in a year. Volkswagen by contrast says we have built 250000 cars a Cheese Factory and speak out in 2018 and used 300000 cubic meters of water less than half as much per com than tesla. But there are also people including haida who are big fans of tesla while the company is tight lipped about whats going on at the site these fans have taken to documenting every little development. Today they want to find out what a q. R. Code spotted on a wall is all about. Its nothing special and that checklist is on of course this is all rather nerdy. For them monitoring the site has become a hobby they come here every day and post videos on you tube they find it all very fascinating and are evidently not so troubled by the objections. Because. Its a company that for years has been promoting a radical shift in the energy industry. Felling 300. 00 hectares of woods is by comparison a minor issue. To wouldnt as the land would have been cleared anyway. And just consider what the factory is going to make because cars that dont emit any c o 2. Could i find the ecological argument about the tree as hypocritical because of course at a local level its a pity to see woodland disappear but it really is the lesser of 2 evils. This is this climate the new. Pledge curler is optimistic that other problems likely to emerge for example Traffic Congestion around the haida can be solved by technical all the just tickle means according to official paperwork tesler expects a maximum of 1200 57. 00 trucks to roll up every day and 6300. 00 of its workers to come by car and infrastructure will need to be upgraded to cope with that all takes time. Local people will likely be facing traffic jams and worsening appalachian. Tesla basilan mask is something of a star in germany. Tesla says it will employ 12000 people at this gigafactory labor unions generally welcome job creation and must may be a visionary but in the United States tesla is known to play hardball when it comes to workers rights. You know this is a very top down company so what do you i must want iran musk usually gets and hes been very clear that he does not want does not want a union. Like here in america my hope is that the laws in germany are better or stronger and well for a better relationship between unions and cashflow to keep cattle and check to make sure that theyre following safety protocols and theyre not cheating workers out of wages and Stephen Smith tells me that has his factory in Fremont California tested it pays workers on the Assembly Line between 15. 00 and 25. 00 an hour whereas other comic has pay 3 times as much whether the fans include high dont know about that or not they certainly impressed by the speed with which the new factory is taking shape. Just 3 months ago the site like this. Tester is pressing ahead in the hope the state will eventually give the final green light its that paragraph 8 a that lets you get a head start and obtain provisional approval bit by bit if in the end the state says no tesla will have to knock it all down again and the site. Those who opposed the development would be pleased if that was to happen. They say there are 2 big loses in the process the environment alongside democratic procedures and accountability. In the factory is going up and the politicians are all cheering it on the greens the social democrats and the christian democrats. The Planning Authority is under immense pressure and facts are being created on the ground so theres no way that mission will not be granted for a project of the scale its absolutely unacceptable starting construction on smaller slices of the praja. Under paragraph 8 a is making a mockery of our democratic rights. Good normal and good food they say they dont understand how a company that wants to save the world from Carbon Emissions can be prepared to cause serious damage to the environment. So the project is highly controversial in fact the whole topic of emo billet he divides opinion here in germany to some iran musk is a crusader a hero challenging german come out of factories to trade in their Combustion Engines for batteries to others hes a false prophet brazenly leading the mobility sector down a dead end. Tesla is the dumbest form of the mobility you could imagine. Because a megalomaniac. Stamp act of tesla on the image of the mobility has been detrimental its not disastrous. Whats wrong with the cars they have 0 exhaust are good for the climate surely there are good things. About making cars with huge ranges except those cars are carrying batteries which are almost one turn in weight 900 kilo batteries and batteries have a very dark side. The production of those batteries involves a lot of electricity generated from coal. Production requires so much c o 2 that youd need to drive a car for years before it starts to become a net c o 2 save or. If one really needs the mobility and Battery Powered cars you 1st have to check that those batteries are small and light and the other cars are too you cant model them on combustion cars. But do german manufacturers fare better with very cars. Ive talked to lots of major german car makers. Actually pressing to know was how for years. Theyve looked at tesla as the standard to follow. Uses his bicycle as often as he can he wants to see more small vehicles like this one but many drivers arent convinced people often want big cars and status symbols how can we stop that habit. But its something that has to end there are sound options out there that are modern and now enjoy widespread acceptance like car sharing. The former greenpeace activist even says certain gasoline powered cars could be an option like this by converting to low consumption 30 years ago. Taken this development a step further and smaller and lighter cars with state of the art Combustion Engine technology. We can now have small but city cars. Will likely meeting just one and a half liters of fuel per 100 kilometers. That would have helped to minimize the problem is still there. But even a leader and a half is too much if were serious about ending our dependence on fossil fuels and while one of the big selling points for ecards is that they help reduce harmful Greenhouse Gas emissions is still a serious hitch or to making the batteries to Power Electric vehicles still involves some not so environmentally friendly processes so how green cars really ecards use Raw Materials mined in south america the democratic republic of congo and china these include lithium cobalt and where earth is needed in their batteries. Admittedly extracting in france sporting these materials is an environmental nightmare often carried out under inhumane conditions but their reserves are abundant studies show that worldwide deposits of these materials can meet demand for years to come. One good thing ecards dont emit Greenhouse Gases although manufacturing them certainly does. All their parts still have to be produced but the power train only has 200. 00 parts as opposed to a Combustion Engines 1200. 00. Whether electricity comes from is another huge issue renewable sources or fossil fuels the good news is that the share of green energy is growing which definitely plays in their favor. Until now its been easy to overlook the problems with electric vehicles because theyre still earning in the market last year. Wide cost sales was just 2. 6 percent but look at it this way that market share bolded tripled between 20112018 china is the Largest Global market accounting for 1202900 followed by the us germany takes place at just over 100000 followed by norway and the u. K. The german car maker is a late comer as to ability now theyre trying to catch up with tesla but will they succeed by colleagues. Paid a visit to the Worlds Largest combat a factory to see how theyre coping. Its a fine day for a drive in the countryside i can get this fully electric v. W. I. V. 3 to 100 kilometers an hour inside 8 seconds but im not doing this just for fun i want to know whether folks wagons eat cars can hold their own against tesla sedans. Teslas model 3 tops the global sales charts this commercial goes so far as to suggest that germans have doubts about their own industries ability to produce competitive models that big and parking lots that big. And it. Is that really the case. Lets make a little comparison. Test those model 3 is more of a family car and the companys least expensive model though not yet available in europe it costs the equivalent of 43000 euros and has a range of 415 kilometers. This id 3 compact ive borrowed from folks wagon costs around 7000. 00 euros less than its us rival. Charging its mt battery with enough power to drive 100 kilometers takes just 10 minutes longer than charging the tesla. But theres a difference. The id 3 cant quite cover the same distances teslas model 3 though again its a lot cheaper. So how is v. W. Preparing to take on the competition. Its speakout plant in eastern germany has been converted to 100 percent electric car production. It manufactures the id 3 and used latest. The id 4 its a Global Market offensive. Through and we have to produce 1350. 00 vehicles and in the future we want to make 1500. 00 a cars per day that is 300000. 00 electric cars per year it could soon overtake teslas entire output but isnt v. W. A bit slow off the mark on the immobility front. Side of it in terms of development the timing was just right for us. Now well be able to produce vehicles in large volume. I remember something similar being said about s. U. V. S people asking v. W. Are you a little late but then as now we were spot on with the timing the technology was ready so we could move on to mass production. Of sport in northern germany is the headquarters of the worlds biggest automaker. I have an appointment with the head of marketing and sales. This id for is aimed at the fast growing s. U. V. Segment. The i. D. 3 was developed for the lower priced compact market and as a more affordable rival to test this popular model 3. But will focus wagon have the courage to switch from a classic Combustion Engine car maker to an all electric future. Produces only economy models we want to make 300000. 00 cars here per year and were already moving forward on the next factory and then well also. A collector cars including ninetys which will give us some breathing space and in china there will be even more production factories will soon be popping up all over the place. In her eyes conventionally powered cars will gradually become models the german auto giant aims to be c o 2 neutral by 2050 for decades the carmakers from putting standardized chassis and its conventional vehicles sharing those construction designs between Different Group brands has been a key factor in v. W. Rise to the top spot but will the concept also work with cars is a platform this platform was developed with the ecards in mind too so we can offer customers affordable immobility options its 100 percent volkswagen but of course skoda say at an audi will use it too and there will also be a premium platform so it will be pretty nicely covered. Toward the end of my adventure with the 3 im passed by a classic v. W. Bug once the best selling car of all. Now the car maker hopes that cars will help them stay in front of the competition. Itll be interesting to see how things develop and of course for tesla once they get that gigafactory off running it. Thanks for joining us for another episode of may see you next time. One continent. 700000000 people. With their own personal stories. We explore every day life for. What europeans fear and what they hope for. On their own. 30 minutes on d w. Imagine how many forces of loves us turn out in the morning right now climb a tree and to break off a story. This is my question when for just one week. How much force can really do. Thanks we still have time to act im going to. Success. That subscribe for more news like this. Its their obsession for spectacular pictures. Its their passion for nature. Play against their complete devotion that makes them the best Wildlife Photographers in the world. Listening to. Enter politics. Confrontational. And stirring. 5 adventures. One goal. In the preservation of our planet. Is not a sinister apartment treaties and saving the planet is a more. Sauce thats in danger of survival. Should such starts november 6th on d w. This is news coming to light from folks are still being counted but joe biden appears confident hell be the next president of the United States im not here that weve won. But i am here to report the count is finished we believe we will be the winner im. The