The first Tesla vehicles manufactured in Germany were delivered to their owners by CEO Elon Musk, at the official opening of the officially opened Tesla's first manufacturing facility in Europe on Tuesday.
"This is a great day for the factory," Musk said at the handover of the Model Y’s, welcoming the launch as "another step in the direction of a sustainable future".
According to the German journal Auto Motor Und Sport, the Tesla plant aims to produce 2,000 automobiles in its first few weeks of serial production, and around 500,000 cars per year. The new 5-billion-euro ($5.5 billion) plant will not only dramatically increase output but also take some pressure off the other factories in the U.S. and China.
Due to a resurgence of Covid-19 instances in China, Tesla had to temporarily stop down production at its Shanghai facility last week. For at least two days, production of Model 3 and Model Y automobiles built in China was halted.
Elon Musk gave a brief speech at the official opening, thanking everyone who helped make the factory a reality and restating his vision that electric vehicles, solar, and wind power, as well as batteries for energy storage, can solve climate change, claiming that the Gigafactory Berlin is a "big step" toward that goal.
During his address he reassured listeners that "Tesla will make sure that this is a gemstone for the area, for Germany, and for the world."
Tesla's Deep Crimson paint color spotted outside of Giga Berlin
tesla_adri/Twitter
At the opening, the Tesla CEO also announced that Tesla is going to be able to offer two new paint colors available at the new factory. He confirmed that "Giga Berlin will have the world’s most advanced paint shop, with more layers of stunning colors that subtly change with curvature."
Tesla mobile app detectives discovered hints of three new colors Deep Crimson Multicoat, Abyss Blue Multicoat and Mercury Silver Metallic in the app code last year. It’s not clear yet which two of these three will be the ones to come out of Berlin.
Tesla's Deep Crimson paint color
temagazin.de
Tesla has also recently begun manufacture of the Model Y at a new plant in Austin, Texas, but the company has yet to conduct a grand opening for the facility.
In Tesla’s upcoming update, 2024.32.3, Tesla has added hands-free support for opening the vehicle’s frunk. This follows the Spring Update (2024.14), which added Hands-Free Trunk support for certain vehicles.
When hands-free trunk support was added earlier this year, it was supported on vehicles that include an ultra wideband chip, which includes the refresh Model S, new Model X, and the 2024 Model 3. Due to the hardware requirement, these will be the same vehicles that support the new Hands-Free Frunk feature. Legacy vehicles without UWB will unfortunately not support either feature due to the hardware requirement. UWB enables far more accurate tracking of the phone key, allowing Tesla to pinpoint its exact location relative to the vehicle.
The Cybertruck interestingly also includes an ultra wideband chip, however, it didn’t include the automatic opening of the gate earlier this year. However, we expect the Cybertruck to also receive the hands-free frunk opening in this 2024.32.3 update or relatively soon afterward.
Update: The Cybertruck is receiving hands-free frunk support in the 2024.32 update as well.
Hands-Free Frunk
The Hands-Free Frunk works similarly to the trunk feature – with an iPhone 11+ and a recent version of the app, you’ll be able to stand in front of your vehicle, and the Frunk will unlatch after sounding a chime. On some vehicles, the frunk will immediately open after being unlatched, however, you’ll need to manually close it.
This new feature isn’t enabled by default – you’ll need to go to Settings > Locks > Hands-Free Frunk to enable it.
At this time, Tesla doesn’t support UWB on Android devices, though both the Hands-Free Trunk and Hands-Free Frunk support will come to Android users in a future app update, according to Tesla.
Exclude Home
With the addition of the hands-free frunk opening, Tesla has also added a new option. You can now choose to disable the automatic opening when your vehicle is located at home to prevent you from accidentally opening. This will apply to the automatic frunk and trunk. In addition, in the Model X, you’ll also be able to disable the self-presenting doors at home. This is a great addition as many people have kept the hands-free feature disabled due to it awkwardly opening in the garage.
In the 2024.32.3 update, Tesla also mentions that they’ve improved the detection of the phone key, which should make the feature more reliable and faster when approaching the vehicle from the front or rear.
Following its recent launch in the United States and Canada, Tesla has launched their referral program in several European countries as well.
The program is available in Germany, Norway, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and possibly others. The program is almost the same as the one available today in North America, with rewards for each referral and a discount for those referred. The cap in Europe is also ten per year.
This program comes right on the heels of a 0% financing offer for the Model Y in Sweden and France. While referrals aren't currently available in Sweden, the 0% financing still is.
European Referrals
The European Referral program accounts for country and local currency, where applicable.
Country
Referral Discount
Referral Award
UK
£1,000
£500
Germany, France, Netherlands
€1,000
€500
Norway
kr11,500
kr5,750
The referral reward program is comparable to the one available in North America. After exchange rates, there is only an approximately 10% difference between the available rewards in the US and EU.
Other Countries
We expect this program to start rolling out to other European countries over the next few days or weeks, as Tesla continues to expand its referral program.
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