Over the past few years, as Tesla built out its gigafactory near Berlin, it cut down around half a million trees.
Kayrros, a company that analyzes satellite images using AI, made the calculation. Tesla cleared around 813 acres of forest between March 2020 and May 2023, according to the analysis.
It wasn’t pristine wilderness: The forest in the area is mostly made up of pine plantations. The trees aren’t native to the region, and planting them in tight monocultures adds to the risk of wildfires. The surrounding area—with busy roads, train tracks, and flights taking off from the nearby airport—also means that the forest isn’t ideal for wildlife.
Still, the factory has had a clear environmental impact. Kayrros estimates that the loss of trees was equivalent to around 13,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, or the annual emissions of nearly 3,000 gas cars. (Under German law, Tesla will have to replant elsewhere the same number of trees that were lost, but those trees will take time to grow before having a large carbon benefit or providing high-quality habitat.) The project also involved relocating some wildlife, including bats. We reached out to Tesla for comment but they didn’t respond before publication.
Kayyros chief analyst Antoine Halff noted the carbon tradeoff in an interview with the Guardian. “The Tesla factory in Germany has led to quite a bit of cutting down of trees,” he said. “But it has to be put in perspective against the benefit of replacing internal combustion engine cars with electric vehicles.” Tesla sold nearly 500,000 cars last year, presumably replacing emissions from gas cars.
Tesla plans to expand the gigafactory further, eventually growing its production capacity from 500,000 cars a year to 1 million cars a year. (The factory is one of six that the company has around the world, building batteries and cars, with another in the planning stages.) Earlier this year, climate activists protested the expansion, citing the loss of even more trees, threats to local water supplies, and the need to protect wildlife, along with other issues in the supply chain, like mining lithium and cobalt. The car company eventually revised its plans to avoid clearing another 250 acres of forest.
It’s a reminder of the giant footprint of making cars, even if EVs are far better than the outdated gas and diesel versions. The protesters argue that instead, more funding should be invested in public transportation, like trains.