Tesla has struck another marketing stunt with a genius by labeling the first Tesla Model Y delivered in Europe with a “Not Model Y” sticker. The photos and videos of this meme-based Model Y have gone viral and started a lighthearted conversation inside the Tesla Community.
Reportedly, Tesla has sent several Model Y electric SUVs to its stores across Europe. One of them has arrived at the Tesla showroom in Brussels and one in Antwerp, Belgium. Tesla Owners Club of Belgium availed this opportunity and posted a detailed interior & exterior walkthrough video on their Facebook group.
Delivery Timeline
With the arrival of the Model Y showroom cars in Europe, Tesla has also shortened the estimated delivery time for the Long Range variant to September in its online configurator.
The timeline for the Model Y Performance variants stays put for early 2022. Either the Performance variant will be imported from the United States or will be the first to go into production at Giga Berlin later this year.
According to reports from Tesla enthusiasts from Europe, the first Model Y has already been delivered to a customer in the region. My friend, Tela Model S owner, and a Tesla YouTuber from Belgium Steven Peeters also know a person who has a Model Y Long Range delivery date of 26th August 2021 (next Thursday).
So, some deliveries are already happening before September, the estimated date shown in the online configurator. These might be Tesla customers who had already put an order in place before the Made-in-China Model Ys suddenly arrived in Europe.
Tesla Model Y Long Range European edition comes with a range of 507 km, a top speed of 217 km/h, and a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 5.0 seconds. It comes with a price tag of €56,999 Euros which is around $66,635 USD — which is $12,645 more expensive compared to the US Model Y Long Range variant ($53,990).
There are 2 reasons that Tesla did not wait for Giga Berlin to start Model Y deliveries:
- The automaker is relentlessly working to maximize the Q3 2021 vehicle delivery numbers.
- Gigafactory Shanghai is reportedly producing Model 3 and Model Y vehicles at an annualized rate of 450,000 cars. This translates to ~8,630 vehicles per week. The Chinese Tesla factory is expected to reach a production rate of 500k cars later this year.
Related: Watch the first batch of Tesla Model Y unloading at the Port of Oslo, Norway
The Not Model Y Meme
The above meme has gone viral on social media, differentiating how legacy automakers and Tesla camouflage their cars in a humorous way. On Reddit alone, it has received a total of 3.8k upvotes (1.4k in r/elonmusk and 2.4k in r/teslamotors). It has escalated significantly on Twitter as well with 10.4k likes on it as Elon Musk himself liked it. The impact of Musk’s like took it from 1k to 10k+ likes on Twitter.
However, historically, Tesla also has been camouflaging its prototype cars like this until a few years back. Now, not just prototypes, if an existing model is launched in another country, Tesla doesn’t miss a chance to camouflage. Just last year, Tesla camouflaged Model Y cars in China and now Model 3 cars in India.
The origins
Tesla CEO himself loves memes and is referred to as Memelord Elon sometimes, so this “Not Model Y” sticker idea might be his very own imagination.
Designer Benjamin Scheltema who hails from the Netherlands was given the task to give this idea a form. Benjamin posted the following short documentary video on the creation of the Not Model Y sticker on his Instagram profile. Thus, this new and innovative camouflage was born.
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