What Happened to 3,000 New Teslas Parked at BER Airport, Giga Berlin Followup

Yesterday I reported that Tesla had strangely parked 3,000 New cars at the Berlin Airport because Giga Berlin couldn't hold them. One wonders, what happened, so that Tesla brings 3,000 new Model Y electric vehicles and uses the parking lot of the Berlin’s Airport. Well, while I know that there is a parking space issue at Giga Berlin, I saw something in the German media that explains what Tesla offered several days ago to ease the space situation and get this vehicles moving to their new owners faster.

Tesla strangely parks 3,000 Model Ys at BER airpot and it has nothing to do with marketing, but rather with Giga Berlin's capacity. See https://t.co/0ez7n11lFO-Watch https://t.co/NVEcfhON4B pic.twitter.com/5W6BoNFnPo— Torque News (@torquenewsauto) December 28, 2022

You know these things don’t happen all of the sudden, so I was searching for the background. Look what I found and how they are connected with Tesla bringing 3,000 cars and parking them at the Berlin Airport. But you know, the Berlin Airport is 32 km away from Tesla Giga Berlin. That is a long way to drive for a parking spot. So why?

On December 16 German publication eFahrer reported that if you pick up your Tesla at the Giga Berlin factory, Tesla will give you a year of free driving. In other words, Tesla will reportedly give you a bonus when you pick up your new Model Y directly at the Giga Berlin factory this Year. The bonus is that Tesla will give a credit of 10k km at Supercharger plus free wallbox.

What does Tesla achieve with this and how are the 3,000 Model Y cars parked at BER airport connected to this? Well, first, Tesla frees space and wisely used a good space at the Berlin airport. Yesterday I reported that Teslas logistics service provider 4S has rented the space. Tesla has a space problem at Giga Berlin. The delivery warehouse next to the factory is too small for that. A 100-hectare expansion area has been applied for, but the development plan is still missing. Second, Tesla offers the 10,000 km of free Supercharging, plus a free wallbox if you reportedly pickup your car from the factory. I assume in this case from Berlin too because all logistics services are taken care of the 4S provider. Berlin Airport is a central location and Tesla gives you an incentive and a bonus to come to Berlin, pickup your Model Y and drive back home with a big bonus. Plus, keep in mind that having 3,000 Tesla Model Y electric vehicles parked at the Airport Parking lot gets a lot of looks, media coverage, business people traveling in and out of Berlin possibly thinking, “hey, why don’t I consider a Tesla as my next vehicle purchase.” It seems to me that Tesla took the delivery warehouse space problem and turned it into a successful marking campaign.

So, as eFahrer reports, the new bonuses worth 1,200 euros are intended to motivate buyers to buy before the end of the year.

State subsidies for new registrations of electric cars will drop significantly in the coming year in Germany. The federal government will contribute around 1,500 euros less to your purchase in 2023. Tesla promised its customers to compensate for this loss if the new car ordered can no longer be delivered this year. This indirect extension of the environmental bonus could obviously cost the group dearly. As reported by Teslamag.de, Tesla sent a message to employees and buyers suggesting that the additional expenses should be limited by this promise.

That's why Tesla is now launching a new bonus for those buyers who will receive their ordered car later this year. In this case, you will receive 10,000 kilometers in Supercharger electricity in the form of a credit. And parking 3,0000 Tesla vehicles at the Berlin airport makes things easier for the prospective buyers who want to take advantage of Tesla’s offer and come to Berlin to pick up their Model Y. With an average mileage of approx. 13,700 km per year in Germah, you could drive for free for over a year. Based on the current prices at the charging stations, the offer corresponds to a value of around 1,200 euros. The group wants to encourage customers to pick up vehicles that have already been produced but not yet sold or delivered from the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide as quickly as possible.

As for Giga Berlin’s space problems, I am learning from your comments under my previous coverage of this subject that the contractors there are spread out making the place very messy. Hopefully clearing the trees making it easier to mange the space needed for cars coming out of the factory. It looks like Tesla Giga Berlin doesn’t have resources to deliver all the vehicles and they need the vehicle transporters. So they contracted with the airport to park them there temporarily. They can now schedule pickups by buyers at this location.

Tesla has to solve a logistics problem at Giga Berlin. This is now with a production of 3,000 per week. What will happen when it reaches, 5,000 per week? Only 10,00 per week (claimed capacity) or 20,000 per week? That is the production of all previously 500,000 per year plants.

One of our Youtube channel subscribers, named Rob Lovegreen, wrote that he knows first hand from a Tesla engineer that in Los Angeles, they park their new cars in parking structures staging them there for delivery to customers. They are then driven to customers home for delivery.

Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebok, Linkedin and Youtube.