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Agency Report –
Berlin – The first cars of the updated Model Y were rolling off the line at Tesla’s European plant outside of Berlin on Tuesday.
But a company spokeswoman said that this does not yet mark the official start of production, and customers cannot order the new model yet. She did not provide further details.
The Tesla Model Y is considered the most-built electric car in the world, and the Tesla manufactures the model at several locations around the globe.
Tesla has expressed hopes that the new version of the Model Y, a crossover SUV, could help the US electric carmaker get back on the growth path.
Tesla, which is run by billionaire Elon Musk, reported its first annual decline in sales in 2024 with just under 1.79 million vehicles delivered to customers.
That was 19,355 fewer cars sold than in 2023.
In the German market, where electric vehicle sales in general have fallen sharply, new registrations of Tesla models dropped to a total of just under 38,000 in 2024, 26,000 fewer than in the year before, according to figures from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
Tesla, which was the leading electric vehicle maker in Germany as recently as 2022, has since fallen to third place in electric vehicle sales behind German carmakers Volkswagen and BMW.
The only Tesla plant in Europe, the “Gigafactory” in the Berlin suburb of Grünheide employs around 11,000 people. The carmaker has previously said that the factory supplies vehicles for the European continent as well as customers in the Middle East and Taiwan.
By Stefan Kruse
