Tesla received permission for Giga Berlin to build up to 2,000 cars to test and fine tune their production processes in the lead up to the official opening of the factory in March. These builds were only test cars and were not allowed to be sold to the public.
While a number of those early pre-production cars were unsuitable for use even by employees, Tesla wants to sell some of the units that are usable instead of scrapping and recycling them.
According to a letter dated June 11, 2022 and sent to the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment, Tesla says it uses some of the cars for employee purposes, likely driving around the massive Giga Berlin complex. Other vehicles have already been scrapped, while others were used for “various test purposes,” likely crash and safety testing.
The documents were redacted to not disclose the exact number of vehicles in each category.
However, there are also some pre-production units that are considered good enough to be “used without major restrictions” and could “be sold to end users.” In the letter, which was first reported by the German publication Märkische Oderzeitung and later TeslaMag, the automaker says disposing of these vehicles will only harm the environment more, and would help avoid disposal as much as possible in according with the Circular Economy Act.
There was no timeline for when a decision could be made, but some customers might soon be able to purchase a Model Y Performance built at Giga Berlin for a discount.
Giga Berlin is currently shut down until July 22 for plant upgrades to improve the efficiency of the factory’s production lines. Once complete each vehicle will be stationary at each stop along the production line for 45 seconds, a 50% reduction from the current 90 seconds.
