Earlier this week, we shared with you that Tesla seemed to be planning to sell Model Y crossovers that were built in Germany ahead of official production. Tesla was allowed to produce some 2,000 electric crossovers for testing purposes before it began building models for customers.
The information was discovered by German media outlets in a document about Tesla's manufacturing in Germany. The document revealed that the automaker had only disposed of about 100 of the early Model Y copies. It also noted that early copies with "good" quality could likely be used without any significant restrictions, which made people assume Tesla might try to sell them to customers.
Fast-forward to the present and the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment shared that Tesla won't be breaking the rules if it moves forward with selling the good quality Model Y SUVs to consumers. The Brandenburg State Office for the Environment is the organization with the power to decide if Tesla would be cited or punished for selling the early production EVs.
While Tesla originally produced the Model Y units as part of its testing process, if the cars are in the same condition as those coming off the assembly line today, there seems to be no reason Tesla can't sell them. With the current situation related to supply constraints, it would be wasteful if the automaker had to scrap all those cars, and clearly, the state office realizes this.
German media outlets are also reporting that Tesla has used a legal argument to plead its case. Since the final approvals for Giga Berlin came in early March 2022, they made all of the earlier partial approvals unnecessary. Tesla argued that all the provisions in the early approvals were not effective once the primary approval was granted.
According to Teslarati, Thomas Frey from the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment shared in a statement about the matter:
“Tesla is free to process bodies that were created during the period of testing the operational capability and to sell them if they are marketable."
Frey also added that emissions control laws work to avoid potential waste. For this reason, the state office would rather not have Tesla disposing of thousands of cars that are potentially fine just because the automaker produced them earlier than other copies.
There's not yet any word on how many Model Y Tesla will sell from the early batches, and it's only assumed the company produced around 2,000. We'll have to wait and see if we learn more about the situation as it unfolds.
