Gigafactory New York will reopen for ventilator production ASAP, says Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced via his Twitter account that the Tesla Gigafactory New York will re-open as soon as humanly possible to produce ventilators — the statement came after Tesla updated shareholders about the shut down of the company via its investor relations website.
Elon Musk was responding to a CNBC video interview of ventilator manufacturer Medtronic’s CEO Omar Ishrak, who stated that the company is partnering with other tech and manufacturing companies including Tesla to ramp up production.
Making good progress. We will do whatever is needed to help in these difficult times.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2020
Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible. We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2020
It was just last week that Elon Musk stated that we will make ventilators if there is a shortage and prepare one of the three factories to start the production but it was not clear which factory would be used for the purpose — since it seems that New York City is the most suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, it made sense to start the production at that facility, also the Giga New York has some redundant space available to make that happen more quickly than the Fremont factory.
The Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio also personally reached out to Elon Musk on Twitter to ask him in helping with the situation, since it was not possible to start ventilator production that quickly Elon Musk bought more than 1200 ventilators from China and gave 1,000 to the Government of California a couple of days ago and remaining stock might move to New York if needed.
Tesla also donated 100k N95 masks to health facilities in Los Angeles and Washington — this shows the Elon Musk and his company’s dedication in helping the country in this difficult time.
Update:
The remaining lot from the 1,000 ventilators given to the California government has been provided to the NYC government and the Mayor has confirmed that in a tweet, also Elon Musk confirmed that the ventilator production starting soon at the Gigafactory Buffalo will be donated and will not be used for gaining profits.
I spoke with @elonmusk late last night. He’s donating hundreds of ventilators to New York City and State, including our public hospitals. We’re deeply grateful. We need every ventilator we can get our hands on these next few weeks to save lives.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) March 27, 2020
We will give away all our ventilators, whether we buy them or build them
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2020
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