Welcome back to my blog. This past week, Tesla started delivering the first Model Ys following the opening of Giga Berlin-Brandenburg.  

The new German-made Model Y has been handed over to customers in Germany as well as in Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy.  Soon customers all over Europe will celebrate receiving their Model Ys.

Elon Musk compares Giga Berlin to a gemstone for Germany, Europe and the world

These were Elon Musk’s first words when he addressed guests at the Delivery Day event on March 22, 2022.

“And to the community, Tesla will make sure that this is a gem — a gemstone for the area, for Germany, for Europe, and for the world. Every vehicle that we make will be another step in the direction of a sustainable energy future. We will also make battery storage. So this is going to be very important for storing renewable energy — so, for solar and wind. Because it’s intermittent, it needs to be stored, but we’re extremely confident that the world will transition to a sustainable energy future with the combination of solar, plus battery storage, and electric vehicles.”

Elon Musk

German Model Y is High Quality

Alex Voigt, a Munich-based blogger, engineer, and BEV Enthusiast was invited by Tesla to attend Giga Berlin Delivery Day. Alex has spent significant time examining vehicle build quality from Teslas built in California, Shanghai, and now, Berlin. Alex says,

    “What I can say is the cars from Giga Berlin have the best quality, obviously they’ve been selecting them carefully so there is no doubt about it, not every car made it, but if you look at the panel gaps and the paint and all the details, it’s by a large margin the best quality I’ve seen so far from Tesla.

    I know the critical areas for instance at the charging port but also other places where usually you have fit and finish problems, regardless if you go inside or outside I definitely couldn’t find any flaws.”  

Alex and other people I spoke with observed that it appears Tesla has chosen black paint, the most difficult color to paint a car because if you are excellent at painting black, you can be good at about any color.  I asked my friend Johnna Crider, writer for Clean Technica, for her opinion on the video that Alex created. She compared the Model Y in the sunlight to the gemstone black obsidian. Johnna custom wraps gemstones. Getting Stoned is her online store. Here is the video she watched, see what you think,

Made in Germany Model Y shows excellent build quality! Thank you @Tesla and @elonmusk for making the transition to electric vehicles so beautiful! $tsla #Cleanenergywillwin

pic.twitter.com/AuwGYxKiVT

— Gail Alfar (Austin) (@GailAlfarATX) March 28, 2022

Elon Musk makes it clear that he considers Giga Berlin to be a gemstone for the world.  The analogy is significant.  Gemstones are something that is both sought after and protected by humans.  Here’s what Johnna Crider had to say about this in her article for Clean Technica,

    When we think of something precious, we often compare that thought to rare gems, minerals, or something of high value.

    And what is more valuable than a fully sustainable future, a goal that Tesla and its employees globally, including Elon Musk, seem to be passionately working toward?

    This is worth more than any beryl, corundum, carbon (diamond or rare shungite), or natural Moissoanite from a meteorite. We can’t enjoy these gems or life if we are not here — or if we don’t have a planet with the capabilities of supporting human life. Right now we have a planet, but our dependence on fossil fuels is wreaking havoc on our environment.

    And I’m not naive to think that mining the actual gems and minerals doesn’t have an effect. In the end, people with good hearts and who passionately care about our world do what we can to help as well as what we can to offset our own negative impacts. 

My feeling is that our world needs Tesla in order to make the transition to sustainable energy as fast as possible. Tesla makes cars that are better than all other cars, regardless if they are electric or not.

Other vehicle manufacturers are acutely aware they will need to mass-produce cars as good as Tesla in order to survive.

The transition to all-electric vehicles is imminent, and that’s worth celebrating.

_{Gail Alfar, [edited by Sarah Alfar], Exclusive to What’s Up Tesla – All Rights Reserved. April 2, 2022}