Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced he will supply ventilators for free to hospitals within countries that the EV manufacturer operates.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected the entire world and resulted in a massive shortage of ventilators that are much needed for many patients to recover from the COVID-19 infection.
On Tuesday Musk tweeted about the ventilators:
We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Device & shipping cost are free. [The] only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse.
Musk previously sourced 1,255 ventilators from Chinese manufacturers and donated them to healthcare facilities in Los Angeles, saying China had an oversupply so he and Tesla bought FDA-approved ResMed, Phillips, and Medtronic ventilators.
Musk has plans to reopen the Buffalo, NY Gigafactory as soon as possible to produce even more ventilators.
He did not say how many ventilators he currently has available for shipping but I would think due to the shortage around the world, and especially in New York, which has been hit the hardest by the virus, there would be many suitors.
There have been more than 858,000 coronavirus cases reported globally with more than 42,000 deaths attributed to the virus. Governments around the world have been lobbying for automakers and other capable companies to make as many ventilators as possible.
Ford has announced they will produce 50,000 ventilators by the end of July, with production beginning on April 20th in a partnership with General Electric Healthcare.
General Motors Co. (GM) was recently singled out by President Donald Trump who invoked a federal law ordering GM to make ventilators and said they weren’t moving quickly enough.
This brings us back to Musk and Tesla offering free ventilators to any country his EVs are sold. If there are so many hospitals in need of ventilators then why are they not just shipping them out immediately to hospitals around the U.S. or Italy where the death count keeps increasing?
It’s a great thing to offer free ventilators, I just don’t understand why the “extra ventilators” are not being shipped out.
