Even before receiving the building permit for its Gigafactory in Grünheide, Tesla was allowed to pre-produce Model Y vehicles – but not for sale. Now the electric car manufacturer seems to want to sell the vehicles from German production anyway.
The responsible authorities in Brandenburg allowed Tesla to produce up to 2000 “bodies” exclusively for testing purposes. The same applied to the production of up to 26,000 parts. “The parts and bodies produced during the system tests may not be used as goods for sale,” quoted “Der Tagesspiegel” from a notification dated January 7, 2022. Nevertheless, Tesla now wants to sell precisely those pre-produced vehicles with a “good quality”.
At the request of the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment (LfU), star informed that Tesla had been imposed an ancillary provision that vehicles manufactured during the test may not be commercially exploited. Above all, illegal plant operation before the permit is issued and economic advantages over market competitors should be prevented. However: “After the approval has been granted, there is no longer any risk of taking advantage, so that the regulatory content of the ancillary provision has been settled,” says LfU press spokesman Thomas Frey. Frey also refers to the Circular Economy Act, according to which it is important to avoid waste.
The LfU thus came to the conclusion: “Tesla is free to process bodies that were created during the period of testing the operational capability and to sell them if they are marketable.”
Tesla: Use of the vehicles is “required”
And Tesla now apparently wants to use this legislation, as the company already stated in a letter dated June 11 to the State Office for the Environment. According to this, a preliminary examination revealed “very different quality characteristics”. Some of the vehicles have already been disposed of. And a “relatively small number” still have to be disposed of due to serious quality defects. The number of those could increase further.
Other vehicles with significant quality defects could at best be used for internal test purposes. In addition, there are vehicles with a “low” quality that can be used for internal purposes to a limited extent – and those that have a “medium” quality. Those should be used primarily for internal purposes.
And then there are vehicles with a relatively “good” quality. These could “reused without major restrictions” and should “be sold to end users”. The use of these vehicles is not only permissible, “but is even required from a higher-level perspective, particularly from a legal point of view”. The LfU also shares this view.
The number of pre-produced Model Y remains unclear
The quantities of vehicles and parts produced have been completely redacted in the document. The maximum permissible number of 2000 bodies was “far below”, says Tesla. LfU spokesman Frey confirms that the electric car manufacturer has demonstrated that the production facilities have achieved the appropriate quality standards at an early stage. Tesla was therefore able to end the test phase before the maximum number of test bodies to be produced was reached.
“The concrete number of manufactured test bodies and the number of bodies that are not sent for scrap cannot be published against the background of the company and business secrets to be protected,” says Frey. How many vehicles Tesla has actually pre-produced remains unclear. But one thing is clear: German models Y from pre-production are now likely to roll to customers.
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Source: Stern
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