When Tesla was getting ready to open Giga Berlin, it got permission to build about 2,000 cars while fine-tuning its manufacturing process. Tesla has now been granted permission to sell some of those early units of the Model Y.
The early production Model Ys were not certified for sale to the public, but Tesla wanted to sell some of the good quality units, even though others were not fit for use by the employees and would be scrapped.
Tesla wrote to the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment (LfU), explaining that the staff used some of the Model Y units to move around the massive Berlin plant. But it pointed out that an undisclosed number was fit to be sold to the general public. Tesla argued that scrapping the ones fit to be sold would damage the environment.
As reported by the German news outlet rbb24, Tesla also justified selling Model Y’s using a legal argument. It argued that since it got final approval in March, all other partial approvals became moot, meaning all the restrictions therein no longer applied.
The LfU supports Tesla’s decision to sell the early production Model Y from Giga Berlin. As explained by one of its executives Thomas Frey, “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.”
Meanwhile, Giga Berlin remains shut till the 22nd of July as Tesla upgrades the facility to improve efficiency. The updated facility will see each vehicle spending only 45 seconds at each stop on the production line instead of 90 seconds.
