Tesla's Future in Germany: Union Disputes and Worker Salaries
Tesla's Delivery Centers in China are bustling as 2025 comes to a close, but the company's future in Germany is not without its challenges. Tesla Giga Berlin has found itself in a new labor dispute in Germany, where union IG Metall is pushing for adoption of a collective agreement to boost wages and implement changes, such as a 35-hour workweek.
In a bold statement, Giga Berlin manager André Thierig drew a "red line" against reducing the workweek to 35 hours, highlighting that Tesla has actually increased its workers' salaries more substantially than other carmakers in the country. Thierig believes that the election of a works council in 2026 is crucial, and that the plant's expansion plans might be put on hold if the union prevails.
The union's demands are not without controversy. IG Metall district manager Jan Otto argues that Tesla's wages remain significantly below levels at other German car factories, even without a collective agreement. However, Tesla counters that it has raised the wages of Gigafactory Berlin's workers more than its German competitors, and that a collective agreement would have only resulted in a 2% wage increase this year.
Despite the dispute, Tesla's popularity in Germany remains strong, particularly among young buyers in their 20s and 30s. From January to November, young buyers purchased over 21,000 Teslas, putting it far ahead of fellow imported rivals like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Industry experts attribute this "Tesla frenzy" to fandom culture, where buyers prioritize the brand over traditional car attributes, similar to snapping up the latest iPhone.
The Model Y dominates among young buyers, with variants like the standard and Long Range models topping purchases for both young men and women. Tesla's position as Korea's top import for 2025 seems secured, with market analysts suggesting that Tesla has all but secured the top spot among the country's imported cars this year.
Meanwhile, Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) fleet is closing in on almost 7 billion total miles driven, as per data posted by the company on its official FSD webpage. These figures hint at the massive scale of data fueling Tesla's rapid FSD improvements, which have been quite notable as of late.
Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies, wrote NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan after experiencing FSD v14.
