After conquering North America and Asia, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has shifted his attention to Europe, hoping also to win competition with rival European EV companies.

Musk was at the inauguration of Tesla’s German gigafactory on Tuesday, where new Tesla models were unveiled to the excitement of clients.

Reuters reported that Musk was cheered as he oversaw the handover of Tesla’s first German-made cars at its Gruenheide plant on Tuesday, marking 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”.

Europe is a top destination in Musk’s bid to make Tesla a global auto brand, a bid which was limited by lack of a Tesla factory in the region. But there has been opposition.

Per Reuters, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was also at the event and lauded the gigafactory as the future of the car industry, witnessed some environmental activists block the factory’s entrance in protest over the factory’s high water use.

The European Union takes environmental concerns seriously and the gigafactory was caught up in a series of it. Musk’s hope to begin output from the factory mid-last year was thus delayed due to licensing issues bordering on environmental concerns.

Until March 4, when it got approval from local authorities to begin production under stipulated conditions that addressed the environmental concerns, Tesla was forced to service European orders from Shanghai.

The delay in getting production approval for the German plant was compounded by global chip shortage and other supply chain disruptions, forcing Tesla to increase the cost of its vehicles.

However, the new Tesla plant means German-based auto companies, especially Volkswagen, making a shift to electric vehicles now have a major challenger in their backyard.

On Tuesday, new German owners received the Model Y Performance configuration, a vehicle costing 63,990 euros ($70,491) with a 514 km (320 miles) range, Tesla said, adding that new orders from the plant could be delivered from April. Tesla said that around 3,500 of the plant’s expected 12,000 workers have been hired so far.

Reuters reported that at full capacity, the plant will produce 500,000 cars a year, more than the 450,000 battery-electric vehicles that German rival Volkswagen sold globally in 2021.

It will also generate 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery power, surpassing all other plants in Germany.

For now, Volkswagen still has the inside track in the race to electrify Europe’s fleet, with a 25% market share to Tesla’s 13%. Musk has said ramping up production would take longer than the two years it took to build the plant.

JPMorgan predicted Gruenheide would produce around 54,000 cars in 2022, increasing to 280,000 in 2023 and 500,000 by 2025.

Volkswagen, which has received 95,000 EV orders in Europe this year, is planning a new 2 billion euro EV factory alongside its existing facility in Wolfsburg and six battery plants across Europe.

But its timeline lags Tesla’s, with the EV factory due to open in 2026 and the first battery plant in 2023.

It’s noteworthy that several Nigerians have been made to believe that the Fifth Generation (5G) is nothing but a dead zone targeted to consume the entire human race.

In other climes, most Nigerians are of the notion that the said network is just a politically-motivated missile meant to override the country’s socio-political space.

One inevitable fact we, as a people, must embrace is that technology has come to stay not just in Nigeria but across the global community, hence anyone who makes an effort to tag it a monster is really taking himself aback. Though it has done several wrongs, the rights emanating from its existence remain innumerable.

On the above note, it’s very pertinent and crucial to fully comprehend the meaning and essence of the 5G network. As the acronym implies, it’s a 5th Generation mobile network. It is dedicated to handle a much larger role than that of the already existing ones such as the 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G networks, respectively.

5G was introduced to elevate the mobile network to not only interconnect people, but equally interconnect and control machines, objects, or any form of devices. It’s meant to deliver new levels of performance and efficiency that would empower new user experiences and connect new industries.

The 5G network is meant to deliver multi-Gbps peak rates or faster speeds, ultra-low latency, massive capacity, coupled with more uniform user experience. It’s imperative to note that the 1G was designed to solely deliver analog voice, 2G for digital voice, 3G necessitated mobile data, whilst the 4G ushered in the era of mobile internet, which we are currently enjoying.

In summary, 5G is a new kind of network in the telecom sector. It’s a platform for innovations that won’t only enhance today’s mobile broadband services, but equally expand mobile networks to support a vast diversity of devices and services, as well as connect new industries with improved performance, efficiency and cost.

5G is, therefore, an advanced wireless technology that has begun wide deployment since 2019. It’s worth noting that, as at October 2019, over four million Koreans had access to the 5G network.

It’s equally amazing to comprehend that China has for long deployed over 100,000 base stations in her quest for 5G wide usage. Survey revealed that about 150 million 5G mobile subscribers were expected in the Asian country by 2020.

Leading international organisations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), alongside various independent medical experts, have confirmed that the deployment of 5G networks leave no adverse health effects and are safe.

It’s noteworthy that several countries have already commenced the deployment of 5G and are currently enjoying its numerous benefits. Some of these countries include the United Kingdom, United States, and Korea Republic, to mention but a few. Even on the African Continent, countries like South Africa and Lesotho have equally keyed in. This information is verifiable.

Technically speaking, reliable research indicates that the 5G network offers significant advantages over the current technologies. Some of its advantages include, but not limited to, much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility.

On the other hand, the 5G network operates in a high-frequency band of the wireless spectrum, between 28 and 60 Gigahertz (GHz). It’s expected to add unlicensed frequencies such as the 3.5 GHz to its list of new frequencies for mobile use. This means a lot of bandwidth would be available to the teeming users.

The aforementioned factor signifies that the 5G won’t only boost ease of communication among telecom subscribers but equally expand the economic band or prospect of any country involved.

Since the 5G mobile network will soon apparently dominate the global telecom sector, Nigeria as an entity must therefore not act in abeyance than to concentrate on how best an effective and efficient 5G can be duly introduced and utilized in the Nigerian space.

As Nigeria, likewise other developing countries, is still trial-testing her technologies and securities toward creating and launching a wholesome environment for the 5G network, she must acknowledge the key parameters that require apt consideration and attention.

At such a time like this, the authorities imbued with the powers to regulate and manage the telecom space must concentrate on the intricacies surrounding the technicalities and securities of the 5G network towards ensuring it isn’t hijacked by men of the underworlds.

They must, therefore, deploy the needed expertise and mechanism to avert any form of criminalities likely to emerge thereof. This very aspect, which is very crucial and inevitable, might require suitable legislation.

More so, it would interest – or perhaps shock you – to realize that over 70% of Nigerians are presently yet to key into the Fourth Generation (4G) Network, let alone the 5G. This is the reason the concerned bodies need to speed up action on awareness and sensitization.

5G has conspicuously come to stay, hence we must focus seriously on how to embrace and welcome it. But mind you, this cannot aptly be done if the needful isn’t duly considered.

Hence, as Nigeria’s government is making efforts to fully introduce the services of the 5G network into the country, all needed parameters must be duly considered.