Tesla to Add 1,000 Giga Berlin Workers as Europe Demand Returns

BERLIN — Tesla will hire another 1,000 workers at its Gigafactory outside Berlin, the company confirmed Thursday, as a rebound in European demand pushes the automaker to ramp output at its only plant on the continent.

The expansion targets 7,500 vehicles per week at the Grünheide factory beginning in October — a roughly 25% jump that would put Giga Berlin on pace for about 390,000 cars a year, the highest sustained output in the plant's history.

A Second Hiring Wave in Three Months

The new positions come on top of 1,000 workers Tesla announced in April, which lifted weekly output toward 6,000 units. The company has also been staffing its battery operation, with plans revealed in May to recruit more than 1,500 employees for cell production in Germany — a step toward Musk's long-standing vision of turning Grünheide into a battery powerhouse.

It is a striking turn for a factory that spent much of last year running well below capacity. Tesla does not add 2,000 production workers in a single quarter unless it sees the demand to absorb them, and the renewed interest in its lineup suggests management is confident the recovery has legs.

Europe Comes Back

The numbers behind the hiring spree are genuinely strong. After two years of softening sales, Tesla's European registrations have now climbed for several consecutive months — up 67% year-over-year in April, with June registrations more than doubling.

Giga Berlin builds only the Model Y for European customers, so every uptick in demand flows straight to the plant's schedule. That makes the factory a direct beneficiary of Tesla's broader product momentum, from refreshed variants to the larger six-seat Model Y L expanding the lineup in other markets.

Part of the tailwind comes from outside Tesla's control: European fuel prices have climbed since late winter, nudging more buyers toward EVs. Battery-electric cars made up 19.7% of new EU registrations through April, up from 15.3% a year earlier, with France, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland all posting triple-digit gains.

Building for the Next Phase

For Tesla, the timing is opportune. The European auto market is recovering just as several legacy rivals retrench, and the company is choosing to lean in with people and capacity rather than wait. A factory humming at 7,500 cars a week is also better positioned to flex toward new products and export programs as they come online.

As detailed in Electrek's report on the hiring push, the October target would still sit below the 500,000-car annual capacity Tesla envisioned at launch — leaving plenty of runway. If the demand recovery holds, Giga Berlin's latest hiring wave may prove to be just the first step in a much larger European comeback.