Tesla Model Y Europe release date: Elon Musk eyes deliveries ‘in about a year’ for Gigafactory Berlin-produced electric crossovers

European customers looking forward to driving a Tesla Model Y will have to wait until next year. That much was reiterated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, along with the seeming confirmation that all Model Y orders from the region would be exclusively fulfilled by Gigafactory Berlin.

Tesla maintains Model Y’s 2021 release date window in Europe

The news comes from one of Musk’s recent interactions with a Tesla fan on Twitter who asked about the timeline of delivery of the Tesla Model Y in Switzerland. Musk responded, “In about a year. Would come from Giga Berlin.”

It should be noted that, at best, Musk’s tweet guarantees that the Tesla Model Y will be delivered to European customers within 2021. It is still too early for fans to determine the exact delivery date since it now appears more clearly that the timeline for the electric crossover in Europe largely depends on the completion of construction and operations of Gigafactory Berlin. The plant is situated within the town of Brandenburg, just outside of Berlin.

While the fan specifically asked about the delivery in Switzerland, all Tesla Model Y units for European markets could be produced in Gigafactory Berlin. Placing an order of the crossover from any of the European regions shows a similar production timeline that is said to begin in “early 2021.” That is quite interesting because, in an early January issue of the official journal of Brandenburg, it was indicated that the plant would not start its operations until July 2021.

Tesla Model Y variants for European orders

To be fair, Tesla has been recently doing well in fulfilling its promises like in the case of Tesla Model Y deliveries in the United States and Canada. But sticking with the same timeline for the crossover’s launch across Europe, which depends on the completion of Gigafactory Berlin, suggests it would not be affected by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

What’s clear and almost certain at this point is that Tesla Model Y should be on the roads in Europe before 2021 ends. Meanwhile, Tesla’s website also indicates that Gigafactory Berlin would also start producing the crossover’s Long Range and Performance variants. These are also the only options available for European customers to order right now while the Standard Range model is promised to enter production by early 2022.