During the summer, Tesla took its S3XY lineup to Wanaka, New Zealand, to continue winter testing all year round. During those winter tests, Tesla took the Model Y’s track mode out for a spin on Wanaka’s snowy roads.
Wanaka is a small town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is surrounded by mountains of the Southern Alps and is known for its outdoor recreation, including skiing or just leisurely walking past the stunning views. Winter in Wanaka runs from June through the end of August, with an average temperature of 10°C.
Tesla Model Y Track Mode Winter Test
Tesla Model Y Performance owners have been waiting for Track Mode for a long time. Musk announced Track Mode for the Model Y Performance back in 2020, and it took some time before it was officially rolled out.
Tesla released Track Mode for the Model Y Performance during its 2022 Holiday Update. With Track Mode, Model Y Performance owners can save up to 20 driving profiles specific to a different driving scenario or track.
Tesla tested the Model Y’s Track Mode in Wanaka. The Tesla team worked hard on the feature, ensuring it is both fun and safe for Model Y drivers.
“We’re out here in New Zealand, working on Model Y Track Mode, a new development for the Model Y Performance package. So this is full oversteer. All you drifter guys are going to love this kind of setting because as soon s you just tip out, you can just rotate the car around and do pretty wild maneuvers,” said JD Price from Tesla’s testing team.
Winter Tests for the S3XY Lineup
Tesla tested all S3XY vehicles in Wanaka while it was summer in California. The team tested the cars and worked with Tesla’s team in California on software improvements for them. With Tesla’s unique software structure, the Wanaka team could test updates as soon as the California team rolled them out.
“It’s super cool to talk to people in California, send the update halfway across the world [and then] you go on top of a mountain [and] test their update. That’s something I’ve never experienced before,” said one member of the Tesla testing team.
Another member of the Wanaka team mentioned that they go to different places to test the S3XY lineup so customers can drive their cars on many kinds of terrain and surfaces through varying weather.
“We’re almost always on a proving ground, testing new software, and we run these thousands of times per software we release,” said one member of the time.
“We do everything from driving the car, writing the code, doing that collaboration. That feedback look is really quick,” elaborated another team member.
Check out Tesla’s Winter Testing video from Wanaka below!
If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.
News
Tesla announces massive new achievement with 8 million cars produced
Tesla’s 8 millionth car comes just 8 months after it built its 7 millionth car.
Tesla announced a massive new achievement in relation to its automotive division as it has officially built 8 million cars globally.
The 8 millionth car rolled off production lines at Gigafactory Berlin on Friday, the company announced. The car was an Ultra Red Model Y, images show:
Produced our 8 millionth vehicle at Giga Berlin pic.twitter.com/gv1moWhwTH
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 6, 2025
The car comes just about eight months after Tesla built its 7 millionth car at the Fremont Factory last October, a major accomplishment considering the claims of a lack of demand from the media.
Additionally, Tesla was able to achieve this major threshold with a stoppage in production at each of its four production facilities earlier this year. The manufacturing halt was attributed to a production line changeover for the new Model Y crossover.
The car has been the best-selling vehicle in the world for two consecutive years, and the company pausing production for two weeks, yet still managed to produce one million cars in eight months is impressive.
Tesla currently only produces the Model Y at Gigafactory Berlin, but the car is also manufactured at Gigafactory Shanghai, Gigafactory Texas, and the Fremont Factory.
It is the only model to be produced at all four of Tesla’s global manufacturing plants, which span across three different continents.
News
Tesla dominates in Norway with 213% sales jump from ’24
Tesla dominated in Norway, and although it lags behind other OEMs for the year, the Model Y is the best-selling model in the country by a long shot.
Tesla has recorded a dominating performance in the Norwegian market as the company outpaced other automakers for the month of May.
The company walked away with 19 percent of the total EV sales for the month, with a vast majority of those coming from the Model Y, which accounted for 2,344 of the 2,598 sales Tesla had for the month.
As a whole, Tesla outpaced Volkswagen by just over 300 units as the German company continues to have a tremendous year across Europe in terms of EVs.
For Tesla, however, it was a tremendous month, especially compared to past years, and as it continues to experience a reduction in sales in the European market, this was an outlier.
A Strong Month
Tesla’s performance in Norway in May was incredibly strong, including growth from the same month last year and quarter-over-quarter improvements.
Tesla sold just 830 units in Norway last May, meaning last month was a 213 percent increase compared to the same month last year.
🚨Tesla is dominating in Norway:
– It has 19.4% of the EV segment.
– Model Y was the best-selling vehicle in Norway in May.
– Best month for Tesla in 2024 in Norway
– 213% increase compared to May ’24BOOM! https://t.co/X84yYNNXAb pic.twitter.com/8RWr4ukfHE
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2025
For the year so far, Tesla has sold 7,600 units in Norway, trailing only Volkswagen, which has had a very strong year in Europe thus far. VW holds 19.5 percent of the total market share for the year in terms of EVs; Tesla has 13.7 percent.
However, the Model Y is still the best-selling EV in the country, and it is not particularly close. With 6,201 sales, it leads the Toyota BZ4X and the Volkswagen ID.4, which have 3,703 and 3,073 sales, respectively.
Tesla has combated weak sales figures in Europe this year, some of which are due to the Model Y changeover across all of the company’s global production facilities. CEO Elon Musk has said that he does not believe demand is an issue for Tesla at all, but instead, Europe is just a weak market.
Figures via EU-EVs
News
Tesla Giga Berlin seems to be using FSD Unsupervised to move Model Y units
Tesla may be doing something quite special in the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg complex.
Tesla may be doing something quite special in the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg complex. Based on observations from a recent drone flyover of the site, it appears that Tesla may also be using FSD Unsupervised to move freshly produced Model Y vehicles to the factory’s staging area.
New Drone Footage
Recent footage of the Giga Berlin complex from longtime Tesla watcher Tobias Lindh included several interesting updates around the Model Y factory. These include a new warehouse that is currently being built, as well as a tunnel is currently being constructed. More interestingly, the drone operator observed that some cars now seem to be moving to Giga Berlin’s distribution area without human drivers.
If the drone operator’s observations prove accurate, it would be quite an impressive accomplishment for Tesla. FSD Unsupervised, after all, has only been confirmed in vehicles that are produced at the Fremont Factory and Gigafactory Texas.
Potential Next Steps
If Giga Berlin is now using FSD Unsupervised to transport some Model Y units from the factory building to the site’s staging area, it might only be a matter of time before Tesla also implements a similar system for Gigafactory Shanghai. The Shanghai-based Tesla plant, after all, is the company’s largest factory by volume, and it also serves as a primary vehicle export hub. FSD Unsupervised could then pave the way for Giga Shanghai to operate in an even more optimal manner.
FSD Unsupervised is the cornerstone of Tesla’s robotaxi business, which is expected to start rolling out in Austin, Texas, next month. Previous reports have suggested that Tesla is pushing hard in its preparations to roll out its robotaxi service this June. Tesla has reportedly even worked and trained with Austin’s first responders from the fire and police departments as part of its robotaxi service preparations.
Check out a recent flyover of the Tesla Giga Berlin complex in the video below.
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