Tesla is using its logistic network to deliver ventilators to hospitals for free

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the automaker has ventilators and it is going to use its logistic network to deliver them to hospitals for free.

Several hospitals in the US are finding themselves in need of ventilators to help save patients who are more badly affected by the coronavirus.

In previous comments over the last month, Musk has been skeptical that there’s going to be a need for more ventilators.

The CEO believes that we “may have passed the inflection point for US cases –  excluding New York.”

However, Musk has still been trying to help by supplying needed equipment, like masks and ventilators.

Tesla’s Chinese team and Musk managed to secure a surplus of 1,000 ventilators from China and delivered them to hospitals in California earlier this month.

Last week, the CEO also said that Tesla is planning to quickly reopen Gigafactory New York to make ventilators for COVID-19 patients and it is also working with Medtronic to make ventilators at its Fremont factory.

Today, Musk said that Tesla already has some “extra FDA-approved ventilators” and they plan to use Tesla’s logistics network to deliver them to hospitals:

“We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device and shipping cost are free.”

The CEO added that there’s a requirement. The ventilators have to be needed right now and cannot be put in storage for later use:

“Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse. Please let me or Tesla know.”

Musk has been hammering the fact that “just as with groceries, the panic is also causing hoarding of ventilators, preventing them from reaching the hospitals where they are needed.”

Tesla will only deliver in markets where it operates – meaning that they will take advantage of their existing logistics network to manage the inventory of ventilators and deliver them to the end-user.