German Model Y with chassis battery in preparation> teslamag.de

So far, the Model Y variant of the Tesla plant in Grünheide near Berlin has been very manageable: from the official start in March, they produced only the performance version in black, then white, and the long-range version was added, which technically hardly differs, and at first nothing Furthermore. But last week Not only did Tesla announce two new colors from the German Gigafactory, one of them for 2022, but also a Model Y with a chassis battery, as was already planned from the start. Preparations for the second innovation can already be seen.

Y model with new front element

On the other hand, this applies to the main factory building. On its roof, when the observation plane Tobias Lind flew over its roof, it was obvious that Fifth chimney above the giga piston area inside Building. So the fifth of the planned eight massive die-casting machines should go into operation. So far, Giga pistons in Grünheide have produced only the Model Y rear frame element in one piece. However, in its third-quarter financial report last year, Tesla announced that the German Gigafactory should still use front-end elements from a single source in 2022.

At the same time, this means that a supporting or “structural” battery is used – it itself forms the middle part of the car frame. That’s how it was for them German Giga factory as the first Tesla company in the world since the beginning, but since there were no necessary 4,680 batteries of its own production, it started with more traditional battery packs from China. According to Tesla’s announcement, that will soon change — in addition to the new press chimney, Lindh also spotted a Model Y with the new front element on Sunday.

They can be seen in the northern area of ​​the German Tesla site along with a number of other unfinished Model Ys, which have been stacked on top of each other and marked as junk. The black-painted body on the far right (see photo above) stands out if you look closely: Lind and the audience identified the front tire as coming from a large piston in one piece. There are hundreds of other large dice parts standing or lying on the property in the video, but they appear to be background items. The black Model Y front could have been imported, especially since an apparently fifth giga piston was still under construction.

Tesla battery probably from BYD

For now, the batteries that make up the middle part of the chassis are also likely to be imported – but not from the USA, where Tesla already produces a limited number of 4,680 batteries, but required for the Model Y from the new Giga plant in Texas. There is a good chance that it will happen German Model Y instead of BYD battery packs from China to get. In any case, there is already EU type approval for it, as teslamag.de exclusively reported in August: at the time, Dutch authority RDW approved a Model Y with rear-wheel drive and 55 kWh LFP batteries in what is referred to as BYD-certified “structural package” battery.