Tesla celebrated the opening of the Gigafactory in Germany last week and 30 units of the Model Y Performance were delivered immediately. But shortly before the event and shortly afterward there was criticism from some media.
Tesla sorts out media on site
The problem: Tesla controlled the local reporting. For example, some YouTubers were admitted, one even got a Tesla Model Y on-site, but other media such as Ove Kröger or Alex Bangula were explicitly excluded.
Ove Kröger is known for direct but also fair criticism of the quality of Tesla and still got the Model Y from Germany for a test in a timely manner. But anyone who now thinks that Tesla was only critical of a few YouTubers is mistaken.
There are other media that Tesla didn’t want to be included. Like ZDF, for example, because their reporting on Frontal 21 was not as hoped. Incidentally, ARD was live on-site and reported on the event in their programs.
It’s not uncommon to have to sift through an event or test equipment because there’s no such thing as unlimited capacity. But here Tesla has probably cleaned up very specifically so that there is no negative criticism on this day.
Tech companies like to select
By the way, the selection of the media also applies to test devices and we have to struggle with certain brands again and again (but I have had good experiences with Tesla so far), which is definitely a problem in the industry.
The big brands are trying harder and harder to steer the reporting. Reach and Co. are pushed into the background, you sometimes unload ZDF just because there was a report in a program that was not well received.
Not an easy topic, because if you speak to the company directly about it, you might end up being completely blacklisted. The test device then prefers to end up with a smaller medium, which reports positively and gets more range due to the time advantage. A topic that I might explain in more detail.
In any case, it’s not nice what Tesla did there, because the site has more than enough space. Sure, it’s their right who’s on-site, but we’d like to be a bit more open about that. Criticism must always be allowed if it is justified.