Not made in the USA – so much German is in every Tesla Model 3

At the beginning all Teslas were produced in the USA, since 2019 the electric cars have also been rolling off the assembly line in China, some Model S are being finished in the Netherlands and from December there will be the first copies made in Germany. But even now, more than a third of the parts in every Tesla Model 3 come from our neighbors, from the chassis to the seats, from the sensor to the door lock.

Of course, this is not something that Tesla makes public on its own, the Californian company does not even publish engine performance data or battery capacities. But the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences did some research on behalf of the Handelsblatt and came up with a quota of 35 percent of the parts that come from German suppliers.

This is no wonder, after all, many parts of cars that are relevant in our part of the world come from specialists, be it property-defining areas of vehicles such as the chassis or steering or rather inconspicuous parts. Suppliers such as ZF, Bosch or Continental can be found almost everywhere. Sometimes they have systems on offer that are then adapted for individual manufacturers. A particularly striking example (which does not apply to a Tesla) would be an automatic transmission from ZF, which is used in many cars, but which is operated at BMW with in-house software.

Back to Tesla. Here is an excerpt from the German suppliers and their contribution to the Tesla Model 3:

ZF also builds chassis and safety systems as well as the steering for the Tesla Model 3. Bosch also contributes to the chassis and also supplies the wiper linkage. Thyssen-Krupp Bilstein not only contributes the shock absorbers, but also the wheel nuts. The body structure would not exist without Elring Klinger; chips for dashboards and engines come from Infineon.

It’s a good fit on Recaros, ifm electronic supplies Model 3 with sensors, headlights and indicators come from Automotive Lighting, stereo sound from S1nn, and thanks to Stabilus, the trunk and Frunk can be opened.

By the way: Many Chinese brands are also equipping their cars with German technology. Basically, the whole is always more than its parts.

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