Photo: Elektromobilität Sachsen
Late last month, a few pictures of two Tesla Model 3s securely strapped in inside an air freighter en route to Germany surfaced on the web, and since the company hasn't started European deliveries yet, the most obvious guess was that someone had paid a hefty sum of money to have access to the electric sedan earlier than everybody else.
These aren't the only Model 3s to make it to Europe ahead of schedule, aside from those already spotted in Holland even before U.S. deliveries had started. One owner from the States plans on staging a tour with his electric sedan later this year, showing the car to anyone interested along the way and also offering test drives after having done something similar in the U.S. in 2017. Also, it's hard to imagine Tesla won't organize an official tour once the start of deliveries in the Old Continent draws near.
Those two cars, however, appear to have suffered a much more grim fate as they were sacrificed on the altar of German technology progress. They're not the first Teslas to fall prey like this after Audi famously bought a Model X but had no clue how to charge it and Mercedes-Benz reportedly performed extensive tests on a rented electric SUV more recently.
According to German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, the unnamed premium manufacturer paid €185,000 (roughly $230,000) for the EV, which is even higher than what the first Model 3 put on sale was going for. The newspaper notes the managers test drove the 3 for ten days before finally handing it over to the engineers for the more in-depth analysis.
The consensus was the powertrain of the Model 3 was an excellent piece of minimalist technology that explains how Tesla managed to keep the price so low. “Each sub-assembly system was put to the test, but the testers were especially impressed by the power electronics," read the report (via electrek). "Compact, expandable, fully integrated, modular, easily accessible, well-protected, reasonably priced and astonishingly clever in many details – that was the verdict of the experts, to which colleagues from other manufacturers also agreed.”
While this is far from official information, it's worth noting that somebody commenting on the EV-themed website claimed they had inside information from BMW suggesting the Bavarian carmaker was the mysterious unnamed manufacturer. The short comment also states that BMW researchers found the technology to be "years ahead [of what they had at the moment]."
Since all German premium manufacturers are currently working on their first noteworthy electric models, any of the four names we can think of (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche) would fit just as well. In the end, it's not the identity of the carmaker that matters, but what they had to say about the 3. Getting the thumbs up from German engineers used to mean a lot.
Those two cars, however, appear to have suffered a much more grim fate as they were sacrificed on the altar of German technology progress. They're not the first Teslas to fall prey like this after Audi famously bought a Model X but had no clue how to charge it and Mercedes-Benz reportedly performed extensive tests on a rented electric SUV more recently.
According to German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, the unnamed premium manufacturer paid €185,000 (roughly $230,000) for the EV, which is even higher than what the first Model 3 put on sale was going for. The newspaper notes the managers test drove the 3 for ten days before finally handing it over to the engineers for the more in-depth analysis.
The consensus was the powertrain of the Model 3 was an excellent piece of minimalist technology that explains how Tesla managed to keep the price so low. “Each sub-assembly system was put to the test, but the testers were especially impressed by the power electronics," read the report (via electrek). "Compact, expandable, fully integrated, modular, easily accessible, well-protected, reasonably priced and astonishingly clever in many details – that was the verdict of the experts, to which colleagues from other manufacturers also agreed.”
While this is far from official information, it's worth noting that somebody commenting on the EV-themed website claimed they had inside information from BMW suggesting the Bavarian carmaker was the mysterious unnamed manufacturer. The short comment also states that BMW researchers found the technology to be "years ahead [of what they had at the moment]."
Since all German premium manufacturers are currently working on their first noteworthy electric models, any of the four names we can think of (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche) would fit just as well. In the end, it's not the identity of the carmaker that matters, but what they had to say about the 3. Getting the thumbs up from German engineers used to mean a lot.
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