Tesla confident about permits to expand German plant

Electric carmaker Tesla expects to win initial approval to expand its plant just outside of Berlin without major hurdles, the US company said on Friday.
Hearings on the proposed expansion of the plant, located in the Berlin suburb of Grünheide in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, are slated to start on Monday. Environmental groups have raised concerns that further expansion of Tesla's plant may risk water pollution in the area.
Other objections include concerns about labour safety standards at the plant, which Tesla refers to as a "gigafactory."
Tesla's plans call for doubling the production capacity at the factory - the automaker's only plant in Europe - from an initial 500,000 vehicles per year to 1 million.
The company has submitted a three-part application for environmental approvals to Brandenburg state regulators.