Tesla is an American company that was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. However, Tesla has been a large international company under Elon Musk for many years. With the breakthrough, new factories (gigafactories) were of course also built.

While the Tesla Model Y for Europe is built in Grünheide near Berlin and the Tesla Model 3 comes from the Gigafactory in Shanghai, the cars for Tesla's premium segment come from a different factory.

Where is the Tesla Model SX produced and how many will be delivered to Europe? You can find out more in this article.

The Tesla Model S is Tesla's oldest model that is still in the range. After the Roadster, which was on the market from 2008 to 2012 and was only built in small series, the Model S is Tesla's second model and was launched in America in 2012.

Since the 2021 facelift and the Plaid version, the Model S has definitely become a car of superlatives. With 1,020 hp, the electric car can go from 0 to 100 in 2.1 seconds.

The Tesla Model X, introduced in 2015, differs in some ways from its brother, the Model S.

In contrast to this, in the Model X you have the option of choosing between 5, 6 or 7 seats and with 957 liters in the trunk and 183 liters in the frunk, there is a lot more space available. The Model X differs from other classic SUVs in the eye-catching Falcon Wing Doors in the rear.

Both the Tesla Model S and the Tesla Model X come from the factory in Fremont, California, USA. The factory was built over 50 years ago and was initially used by General Motors and later by NUMMI, a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.

After GM's bankruptcy in 2009, Toyota gave up using the site and sold it to Tesla in 2010 for $42 million.

Because of this history, this factory is not called a Gigafactory. Tesla only calls its locations Gigafactory if they built them themselves.

The battery cells for the Model S and Model X are manufactured in the factory in Nevada. Tesla began its history as a car manufacturer here, but has since moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas.

The Tesla Model S has been produced in California since 2012, the Model X since 2015, the Model 3 since 2017 and the Tesla Model Y since 2020. The latter two are only manufactured here for the American market. The Model S and X are produced exclusively in Fremont worldwide and shipped to other continents.

Both the Model S and the Model X are high-priced cars (starting at €94,990) that are sold in much smaller numbers than their siblings, the Model 3 and Model Y. This is the only way to meet global demand with one factory. Around 17,000 Model S and X are produced here every quarter. Of these, around 4,000 electric cars make it to Europe every quarter and are shipped on a freighter. Since there were a total of 500 new Model SX registrations per quarter in Germany in 2022, one ship with 3,000 cars is sufficient.

Even after the facelift, vehicle production at the Fremont factory is limited to a total of 25,000 electric vehicles per quarter, although this figure has not been reached for years, which is also due to lower demand in the premium segment.

No finished Model S and X were delivered to Europe until 2021. The components, such as the drive trains, were brought individually to a dedicated factory in Tilburg in the Netherlands, where the final assembly took place. This was done at the time to save costs, but as the number of units increased, it was no longer worth maintaining the factory, so the electric cars are now fully assembled and shipped from Baltimore in Washington to Zeebrugge in Belgium, and are transported from there.

As their popularity and relevance increased, criticism arose that the models manufactured in Fremont had major quality problems. This would affect the workmanship, the paint and the materials. While this was the case at the beginning of production between 2012 and 2016, Tesla has now solved these problems and is now also increasingly reaching the European standard with the Model S and X that they already achieved with the Model 3 and Y.

The Tesla Model S and the Model X are enjoying increasing popularity. Nevertheless, these are vehicles that are intended for a specific sector rather than for the general public. This is why Tesla ships the vehicle models produced in the factory in the USA to Europe, among other places. Quality problems that are said to be associated with the models are no longer found to this extent and therefore cannot be a reason to advise against these models.

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