Elon Musk strikes again and with a twett he anticipates the news that shocks the world of premium cars: delivered the first 30 Tesla Made in Gernany. And it is an announcement that has a double strategic value. The first is linked to the fact that Tesla aims straight and strongly at the European market by focusing on the proverbial build quality of German cars. The second is linked to the expansion of the brand: this is the first Tesla factory in Europe, the fifth largest global factory of the brand.
In short, the entry into operation of the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg is an event that also underlines the incredible speed of the US brand to broaden its horizons: it was announced for the first time just in November 2019 and construction work began in the spring of 2020. Just two years later, the factory opened and production of the Model Y began.
And we are talking about a huge factory, which not surprisingly has the word “Giga” in its name and which is identified with the territory. It is in fact called Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg taking its name from the nearby German capital and the federal state on which it stands, Brandenburg, combining different production units on the 300-hectare site for a total plant of 227,000 square meters. But that’s not all: this is not a “screwdriver factory”, parts that come from outside are not assembled here: when all units are fully operational, about 12,000 employees will produce cars, battery cells, batteries, electric motors, plastic parts, seats, axles and much more. All in the same place.
The production capacity? Huge: 500,000 Model Ys a year and a battery production of up to 50 GWh. Translated into practice, this is the largest electric car factory in Europe by capacity.
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In short, a giant, which seeks in every way – in line with Tesla’s mission to accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy – to mitigate its impact on the territory. For this reason, Elon Musk himself worked with local authorities and associations to ensure a minimum impact on the local fauna and to replace the current pine plantation with a forest made up of 60% hardwood, making it more robust, diversified and more ecological value. And there is no lack of virtuous examples of reducing the environmental footprint in production: for example, the energy consumption for each cell produced will decrease by 70%, the consumption of water per car produced will be lower than the combined industry average (2.2m cubic against 3.7m cubic meters) and the use of solvents will be significantly reduced in the paint shop.
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This would be enough to rock the world of premium cars, as we said before. But there is more: the 30 Model Ys that have just been baked from the German factory are the highly anticipated “Performance” versions – an absolute preview for the whole European market – practically true supercars. The Model Y Performance has in fact an increased top speed from 217 km / h to 250 km / h (it seems crazy, but for German motorways without speed limits it is a kind of boon) and an increased acceleration 0-100 km / h from 5 seconds to 3.7 seconds …
All with 514 km of WLTP range (obviously not going so fast…) and is equipped as standard with 21 ”Überturbine rims, lowered suspension and special brakes. A carbon fiber spoiler has also been added to improve stability at high speeds and traction is on all four wheels with the usual All-Wheel Drive system.
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