Tesla Inaugurates First European Factory

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Tesla Motors wants to boost its European sales, for which it has opened a factory in the Netherlands. The new factory is in Tilburg and will be used for assembling the Model S and carrying out final quality checks, according to an announcement made on Twitter over the weekend.

First of its kind in Europe

Tesla’s factory boasts the first indoor production track in Europe for simulating various road surfaces, thus helping in ensuring quality controls on harshness, noise and vibration level. The length of the track will be 750 meters. Although European deliveries of Tesla’s Model X SUV are not expected to begin until next year, the SUV is expected to be assembled at this site only.

In 2013, the U.S. firm first announced plans of opening its European assembly plant in Tilburg to be used for final assembly and distribution for European sales and speeding up production and reducing delivery time. Henk Kamp, the minister of economic affairs, inaugurated the factory alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk. They also had a discussion on the possible tax changes in the Netherlands of electric and hybrid cars, as reported by the local press. The plant will manufacture the Model S, X and 3 and is expected to increase the production capacity of Tesla by over 200%. The Model 3 is a smaller, more affordable option for those want to own an electric car.

Importance of the new factory to Tesla

For Tesla, the new facility holds a lot of importance. Tesla will need to generate more revenue as it grows and expands, and the obvious way to do so is by selling more vehicles. Europe is an excellent market for selling such vehicles, especially as the possibility of hefty carbon taxes looms.

Most of the major Tesla rivals based in Europe, such as Audi, Porsche and BMW, have already announced plans of working on a better range of electric vehicles. So this factory will help the U.S. firm negate any advantages local rivals enjoy.

Tesla has an ambitious plan of delivering half a million cars by the end of 2020. The automaker is not showing many signs of missing this target. It is very possible that it will exceed this number, and its new European plant will play a major role in this.

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