Tesla Delivers Ventilators To New York While Production Talks With Medtronic Continues

Tesla sent ventilators to Brooklyn in New York City, and the shipment arrived recently. Vincent Stahl shared a picture of the ventilators sent to Brooklyn via Facebook’s TESLA Owners Worldwide page. 

Medical professionals in Brooklyn sent their love and gratitude through the photo Stahl shared on Facebook. “Thank you, Tesla. XOXO -BKLYN,” said pieces of paper with each word of their message printed on it. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently pledged that the company’s Giga New York in Buffalo would reopen and start production on ventilators, which are in high demand in multiple states in the US, including New York, Michigan, and Louisiana. Tesla is working with Medtronic on ventilator production in Giga New York. 

Vincent Stahl/Facebook

While Tesla has not produced any ventilators in its Buffalo factory yet. However, the EV automaker has found other proactive ways to contribute to the current pandemic within the United States. For instance, Tesla sent more than 500 PPE sets to a hospital in Denver. And it seems Brooklyn will not be the last place to get ventilators from Tesla. 

Last Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio shared that he spoke with Elon Musk, who had promised to donate hundreds of ventilators to New York City and State, reported a previous Tesmanian report. Based on Musk’s reply to Blasio’s tweet, the ventilators that Tesla is delivering were stuck in warehouses for various reasons.

So it seems that Tesla has found a way to deliver the already-manufactured ventilators to the healthcare facilities that need them. Tesla’s efforts could help buy some time for patients and their healthcare providers.

In the meantime, Tesla and Medtronic still seem to be ironing out the logistics and finer details of ventilator production at Giga New York. Erick Winkels, a Medtronic spokeswoman, spoke with Forbes about the medical supplier’s alliance with Tesla. 

“We have an ongoing collaboration with Tesla around ventilators that spans from ventilator component manufacturing to full-scale ventilator production. We are hopeful that something can come from this collaboration but don’t have any other details to provide at this time,” Winkels said. 

You’re most welcome. Credit to the Tesla team. Will do our best to help in any way.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2020

Medtronic has also made an effort to help during these trying times by releasing ventilator design specs for basic models to any company that wants to produce them for healthcare facilities. However, as a company that specializes in machinery that is in dire need right now, Medtronic may need to try a bit harder and move quicker. 

As of this writing, the number of cases in the United States still seems to be growing rather than plateauing. If this is the case, then more ventilators may be needed in the coming weeks. So, Medtronic needs to finalize its discussions with Tesla and produce actual, concrete ventilators as soon as possible.

Featured Image Credit: Vincent Stahl/Facebook