Image: TeslaTesla has confirmed to the German Press Agency (DPA) that it will expand its workforce at the Grünheide plant. According to the DPA, once the expansion – which is set to take place shortly – is complete, approximately 11,700 people are expected to work at the site.Just over two years ago, the German Tesla factory employed 12,400 people. In early January, ahead of what became a highly contentious works council election, an internal document from the election committee listed only 10,703 employees – a discrepancy of 1,700 staff. At the time, Tesla denied any ‘significant job cuts among the core workforce’ and described fluctuations in the total workforce, which includes temporary workers, as ‘completely normal’ for a plant of this size. This perspective is now supported by the short-term creation of 1,000 new positions.“The management of Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg has announced today that it will create 1,000 new jobs by the end of June to increase weekly production by around 20 percent from the third quarter,” Tesla stated. The first hires are planned as early as May. “This is a direct response to the increased demand for the Model Y.” Indeed, demand has recently rebounded; March 2026 was a strong month for Tesla in Germany, and at the EU level, Tesla’s performance has also improved significantly after a mixed year in 2025, as the latest figures from the European industry association ACEA show. The driving force behind this demand is seen as the more affordable versions of the Model Y, which have been on the market since last autumn.As part of this hiring round, Tesla also plans to convert around 500 temporary workers into permanent, unlimited contracts over the course of the year, according to the DPA. Separately, the search for several hundred new employees for battery cell production has begun, which is set to start in the first half of 2027.In early March, a report suggested that only 149,040 Model Y vehicles were produced in Grünheide in 2025, which, given an annual capacity of 375,000 cars, would have represented a utilisation rate of just 40 per cent. However, André Thierig, the Grünheide plant manager, promptly contradicted this, stating that over 200,000 units were produced in 2025. The IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Sachsen, which had been at odds with Thierig during the works council election, also supported the Tesla manager: ‘We don’t have exact figures, but our assessment is that it must have been over 200,000.’ With the current hiring round and rising registration numbers, it now seems clear that production at Grünheide is increasing – after all, the Model Y produced there remains Tesla’s most important model series in Europe.handelsblatt.com