German-Made Tesla Model Y Compared to Its Made-in-China Sibling: Which One Is Better?

The first Model Y crossovers were, of course, produced at Tesla’s Fremont factory, but the opening of Giga Shanghai in China changed the perspectives completely. To complicate things even further, Giga Shanghai also builds the Model Ys destined for European markets, while the newly opened Giga Berlin does the same. Soon, Giga Austin would join the party, and the U.S. will also have a divided market with the Model Y delivered both from Fremont and Austin.

So we’re not surprised that people are interested to see how different builds of the same vehicle compare to one another. The first comparison between the Chinese build and the Made-in-Germany Model Y comes to us thanks to the Nico PQ YouTube channel. Nico was one of the lucky people to have his new Model Y delivered personally by Elon Musk, who also signed his name on the car. Nico also owns a Model Y imported from China.

When Musk talked about Giga Berlin production, he let us know the new factory would employ the most advanced building techniques in the world. Up until now, Giga Shanghai has been the cutting edge star of the Tesla empire. Nico was surprised to see that the differences between the two cars were minimal and mostly due to the different trims and vintage. In the meantime, Giga Shanghai also implemented most of the changes we see on the MiG Model Y.

Nico was impressed with the overall quality of his new car and found nothing to complain about. He had a small issue with the driver’s door not closing as it should, but the problem was since adjusted. You might think being made in Germany, this Model Y benefits from better build quality, but the truth is the Chinese Model Y was also perfect in this regard. The new Performance model has softer trims on the door panels compared to the Long Range trim built in China.

Other improvements worth mentioning are the heated wiper area of the windshield and the more powerful AMD Ryzen processor in the infotainment system. All these changes have also been implemented at Giga Shanghai in the meantime, so we’re not seeing much to talk about here. Unfortunately, Nico does not offer a more in-depth assessment, perhaps looking at the structure of each car to see if Tesla has changed anything underneath.