Elon Musk launches Tesla’s gigafactory in Germany [PHOTOS]

American entrepreneur and business magnate Elon Musk was applauded and lauded as he oversaw the opening of Tesla’s first German-made cars at its Gruenheide plant on Tuesday.

The opening marked the start of the U.S. automaker’s inaugural European hub just two years after it was first announced.

Loud music played as 30 clients and their families got a first glimpse of their shining new vehicles through a glitzy, neon-lit Tesla branded tunnel, clapping and cheering as Tesla Chief Executive Musk danced and joked with fans.

“This is a great day for the factory,” Musk said, describing it as “another step in the direction of a sustainable future”.

Musk said that Tesla is likely to launch a test version of its new “Full Self-Driving” software in Europe, possibly next year depending on regulatory approval.

“It’s quite difficult to do full self-driving in Europe,” he told factory workers on Tuesday, saying much work needs to be done to handle tricky driving situations in Europe where roads vary a lot by country.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who also attended the event, lauded the gigafactory as the future of the car industry.

However the factory has faced opposition.

Some environmental activists blocked the factory’s entrance on Tuesday while displaying banners flagging its high water use.

Two protestors abseiled from a motorway sign near the factory, blocking traffic for hours after the event.

Musk had hoped to begin output from the factory eight months ago, but licensing delays and local concerns around the plant’s environmental impact held up the process.

TopNaija understands that the world’s richest man Elon Musk is on his way to becoming the world’s first trillionaire by 2024, according to a forecast by Morgan Stanley, an investment bank.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley are of the opinion that it is SpaceX, the space company rather than Tesla, the electric car company that would push the billionaire to trillionaire status.

In a note titled “SpaceX Escape Velocity … Who Can Catch Them?”, Adam Jonas, Equity Analyst for Morgan Stanley stated, “The private space-exploration company is challenging any preconceived notion of what was possible and the time frame possible, in terms of rockets, launch vehicles and supporting infrastructure.”

Musk is currently worth $232 billion according to the Bloomberg billionaire index with the bulk of his fortune coming from his electric car company Tesla, the highest manufacturers of electric cars in the world and from Space X his space company.