Elon Musk is hyping up the upcoming German-built Tesla Model Y, which he claims is going to be “a revolution in automotive body engineering.”
As we explained this morning in our post about Volvo importing a Model Y in Europe to reverse engineer it, the electric SUV is Tesla’s first vehicle that will only launch in Europe and China once it is being locally produced there.
The new production capacity being deployed at brand new factories is giving Tesla the opportunity to improve on the SUV, which is currently being produced at the automaker’s Fremont factory for the North American market.
CEO Elon Musk has talked before about Tesla building “the most-advanced paint shop” at Gigafactory Berlin in order to release new multi-layered paint options for Model Y.
Now, Musk is now teasing a “revolution in automotive body engineering” with the Model Y produced in Germany.
The CEO wrote on Twitter today:
“Berlin Model Y is the one to watch. That is a revolution in automotive body engineering (finally).”
In a follow-up comment, he hinted at improvements in casting for Model Y:
Even more
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2020
We previously reported on the Model Y built in Fremont featuring massive cast parts in the rear of the SUV enabled by a mega casting manufacturing breakthrough.
Musk said that Tesla managed to turn what was 70 parts in Model 3 into 2 parts in Model Y (pictures via Sandy Munro):
However, the CEO said that this major improvement is only the beginning.
Tesla plans to make more extensive use of its new mega casting technology throughout its EV lineup.
A patent application filed last year revealed this new casting machine that Tesla is using to build Model Y.
Now, Musk appears to say that the Model Y vehicles that will be built at Gigafactory Berlin are going to make more extensive use of this technology.
Tesla currently aims to start production at the new plant in July 2021.
Electrek’s Take
I assume that the same improvements are going to make their way to Fremont and North American Model Y vehicles eventually.
For now, Tesla relies too much on the production at the location to disrupt it with major changes to body manufacturing.
However, I would assume that the same technology is going to be released at Gigafactory Shanghai where Tesla is also building new production capacity for Model Y vehicles for the Chinese market.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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