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Tesla Model Y Performance Coming Out Of Gigafactory Berlin In Two Weeks

Tesla Giga Berlin is apparently preparing for the first deliveries at the end of January. In a letter to a reservation holder in Austria, Tesla is basically telling him to start paying 9,900 Euros until the end of January, in order to prepare for next steps and delivery of his Model Y Performance.
Gigafactory Berlin, courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Let´s consider that the Model Y design and manufacturing procedures are in a constantly improving process, just like all other Tesla models: Elon Musk told an interviewer not long ago that the Berlin made Model Y is "not just a copy of the Model Y. It’s actually a radical redesign of the core technology of building a car.". Going back in time, on August 13th 2020 it was reported that Tesla Fremont would activate the World's largest unibody casting machine in Model Y production, switching to casting the rear body in a single piece, and that made in Berlin Model Y rear and front portions of the frame would be a single-cast design.

Injecting molten aluminum into a cast and having robots pull out the molded metal would allow Tesla to combine several manufacturing steps. This manufacturing process was expected to result in significant savings, including lower tool investments, reduced production time, lower number of robots and smaller production area.

Tesla Model Y, Courtesy of Tesla Inc.

On September 8th 2020 Volkswagen Group Chairperson of the Board of Management, Herbert Diess, wrote about the Model Y: "This car is for us in many aspects (not in all!) a reference: user experience, updatability, driving features, performance of the top of the range models, charging network, range. Big advantage: Model Y was/is thought through as an electric car – as is the ID.3. Many of our competitors still using their ICE platforms. The result: They aren’t getting the best EVs". Then, on October 7th 2020, Elon Musk tweeted that Giga Berlin Model Y would get single-piece rear and front frame cast, structural battery pack, and new 4680 cells.

Tesla Model Y, Courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Later on, on July 25th 2021, Musk revealed that Tesla was planning to release an updated design for the Model Y by the end of 2021. In addition, Tesla planned to implement their new structural battery pack to improve range. These new cars would be manufactured by the two new Tesla production facilities in Austin, Texas and Berlin, Germany. If Tesla was not able to roll out the new 4680 battery cells by the end of 2021 (which is what in fact happened), they would use the standard battery cells until the 4680's are ready.

As of today, January 5th 2022, the Tesla Model Y Performance has apparently already been produced in Gigafactory Berlin, according to the social media sources shown above; that is, not shipped from Giga Shanghai (the reasoning being that if it were coming from China, it would have already received a VIN). Even though there is no official confirmation from Tesla, we can be reasonably sure that deliveries are set to start at the end of January.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.

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