On March 3, according to the German "Business Daily" report, Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory was delayed for several months, and finally obtained the final approval of the German government recently to allow the factory to open. Tesla plans to hold an opening ceremony on March 22 or 23 and deliver the first 30 German-made Model Y performance editions to lucky owners.
When the Shanghai Gigafactory began deliveries in January 2020, the first batch of 10 vehicles was available. When the Model 3 was delivered at the earlier California plant, the first batch was also only 30 vehicles. The Berlin Gigafactory can come up with 30 vehicles this time, which is really quite a lot. Musk will also be present at the opening ceremony, and if they are lucky, these owners will be able to receive the car keys from Musk.
Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory, while approved, cannot be put into production immediately, and there appear to be other conditions that have not yet been met. However, the factory was ready to start production as early as last July, and now it has been delayed for more than half a year, and Tesla has plenty of time to improve and optimize the production process. Once the production permit is obtained, it is believed that the capacity will increase very quickly.
Drive Tesla media said that Tesla will start producing four Model Y test cars this week, all of which are long-endurance versions. Three of the four vehicles are equipped with 19-inch Gemini wheels and one with optional 20-inch sensing wheels. The manufacture of these test cars will help validate the final mass production effort and help staff fine-tune the production line for both models, though it's uncertain when the plant will be able to start mass production of the Model Y long-endurance version.
The road to production of the Berlin Gigafactory is really difficult, in addition to the troublesome approval process, but also met with resistance from environmental groups. However, now that production is finally imminent, this will help increase Tesla's global production capacity. Today's Tesla is facing huge production capacity pressure, empty orders but can not deliver the car. The delivery date of the domestic Tesla Model Y is about 10 to 14 weeks, and now the reservation needs to wait about 3 months to pick up the car.
Musk is also aware of the seriousness of the problem, announcing last year that the Shanghai Gigafactory will be expanded, which is expected to be completed in April this year. Today, Musk also said that the California plant has been seriously overloaded and also needs to be expanded, but no clear expansion plan has been formulated.
The development speed of the electric vehicle industry is very fast, and the production capacity requirements of car companies are getting higher and higher. At present, Tesla's popular models are in short supply, electric pickup trucks are backlogged with 1.2 million orders, Musk really has to hurry to build a factory to expand production capacity, otherwise when BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and other big factories catch up, Tesla will soon be pulled apart.