Tesla Factory
The Tesla plant is an automobile production facility owned by Tesla Inc. in Fremont , California , United States .
prehistory
The factory is over 50 years old. From 1962 to 1982 various General Motors models were produced here for the western United States. From 1984 to 2010 it was the location of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota . Here some Toyota models were made for the American market as well as some models of the brands Chevrolet , Pontiac and Geo , which were based on Toyota constructions. After the bankruptcy in 2009, General Motors withdrew. Shortly afterwards, Toyota also gave up this location. At the same time, Tesla was looking for a location to manufacture their electric cars. A new building was actually planned, but when looking for possible locations, the possibility of acquiring the previous NUMMI factory at a reasonable price was discovered. In May 2010, the plant was purchased by Tesla for $ 42 million.
Tesla Motors
Tesla has been producing the Model S electric sedan there since 2012 , which has the largest battery and therefore the longest range of all available electric cars, and the Model X SUV since 2015 . The Model 3 midsize sedan has been rolling off the assembly line since 2017 . There were already over 400,000 reservations worldwide for this vehicle before production started. Production of the new Tesla Roadster is planned here even later .
The long distances of the huge plant can be covered by the employees by bike. Since the takeover by Tesla Motors, the factory has been and has been changed significantly to create a friendlier work environment. The floor was sealed white and windows were built in to let daylight into the interior. Parts of the plant are still unused, but the annual capacity when fully expanded is expected to be around 500,000 vehicles per year. The vehicles for the European market are simply prefabricated here and then transported to the Dutch Tesla plant in Tilburg for final assembly.
This auto plant houses the United States’s largest press for body parts. The production robots installed on the production lines as well as the painting robots come from the German machine builders Kuka and Dürr . The office of CEO Elon Musk is located in the factory , as is the design department headed by Franz von Holzhausen , who previously worked for Volkswagen and Mazda for years .
Chief Technical Officer JB Straubel is working on optimizing the batteries for the vehicles. The arrangement and interconnection of the individual lithium ion cells of the 18650 format are trade secrets. The cell supplier is Panasonic , which is also a partner and investor in the construction of the Tesla Gigafactory in Reno , Nevada . According to Elon Musk, the Gigafactory will one day be the largest building in the world. The next generation of battery cells will be in the 20700 format. Tesla recently signed contracts with Samsung and LG as additional battery suppliers.
Individual evidence
- ^ Tesla factory. In: Official German website of Tesla Inc. Tesla Inc, USA, accessed on October 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Lisa Sibley: Tesla officially replaces NUMMI in Fremont. In: Silicon Valley Business Journal of October 27, 2010.
Coordinates: 37 ° 29 ′ 39.5 ″ N , 121 ° 56 ′ 30.5 ″ W.