Tesla Factory

Tesla’s Fremont factory is already one of the biggest buildings in the world in terms of footprint and yet, the automaker has been expanding it rapidly as it ramps up Model 3 production.

A new drone flyover gives a fresh look at the factory and shows new buildings.
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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against Tesla after the United Auto Workers (UAW) made charges against the company over allegations that they were impeding on attempts to promote a unionization effort at their Fremont factory.

Tesla responded with a scathing attack on UAW called the allegation “baseless” and “meant only to generate headlines.”
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It looked like things had calmed down on the unionization front at Tesla’s Fremont factory over the last month as United Auto Workers (UAW) focused its efforts on the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi.

Now a group called ‘Tesla Workers’ Organizing Committee’ have sent a letter to Tesla’s board of directors with demands.
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For over a year now, Tesla has been expanding its Fremont factory in preparation for the start of Model 3 production.

The plant, which is already one of the biggest in the world, has changed quite a bit, but there was no new significant large structure like this new one coming up right now.
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The very first production Tesla Model 3 is supposed to come off the production line today, according to CEO Elon Musk.

As we wait for an update on the progress, we get a very rare (and small) peek inside Tesla’s secretive Model 3 production line.
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While several Model 3 release candidates have been spotted in the wild, Tesla hasn’t shown the Model 3 in any official capacity since launching the production of the release candidates.

We now learn that the company will hold a private showing of the vehicle in June for the winners of a previous referral program.
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The Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, is one of the biggest buildings on earth with 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space. Since buying the plant for a mere $42 million in 2010, Tesla has occupied only a fraction of the building, but everything changed over the last year as the automaker increased its production to 2,000 vehicles per week and it is now investing over $1.2 billion in the plant to increase the production rate to 10,000 per week for the Model 3 production.

In order to achieve its goal, Tesla has been hiring at an insane rate and has now over 6,000 employees working in Fremont, which is creating irritating parking problems for the workers. Ironically, the problems are similar to what some Tesla owners are experiencing at Superchargers – like being ICEd.
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It’s difficult to overstate the impact Tesla has on Fremont and the East Bay Area. With ~6,000 workers, the automaker is now the city’s biggest employer and that’s without accounting for all its suppliers in the region.

Now we learn of Tesla even convincing manufacturers to come establish new production capacity in the area ahead of its planned production rate increase for the Model 3 program. 
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A report from the Bay Area News Group Watchdog published in the Mercury News back in May suggested that foreign workers were brought in from Slovenia with nonimmigrant visa for tourism and business, known as a B1, in order to build Tesla’s new paint shop at the Fremont factory in California.

The report was based on a lawsuit filed by Gregor Lesnik, a Slovenian worker injured during his work at the factory, against Tesla and two subcontractors in charge of the paint shop projects, Eisenmann and Vuzem. The report alleged that workers were paid only $5 per hour while Tesla was paying the contractors $55 per hour.

After the report came out, Tesla said that it was going to do the right thing for the injured worker and we now learn that 10 days later, the automaker and contractors settle the suit for $550,000 without specifying the breakdown between companies.
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Flashback to when we reported that India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, met with some executives at Tesla, we now have, via the Indian Express, learned that India’s Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari, met with Tesla executives on the 15th to talk about introducing and increasing the adoption of “pollution-free road transport” with a focus on commercial and public vehicles i.e trucks, buses and two-wheelers.

Nitin hopes to accomplish this by having Tesla settle in India to create an “Asian manufacturing and assembly hub”. Gadkari goes on to state:

“the Indian government is committed to encouraging alternate pollution-free transport in the country by providing incentives to bio-fuel, CNG, ethanol and electric vehicles.”

Further, in his meeting with the Tesla team, he “offered up land near major Indian ports to facilitate export of their vehicles to South and South East Asian countries.”

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Earlier this month, Bloomberg came out with a report claiming that signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” with Jinqiao Group, a Shanghai government-owned company, to invest in a $9 billion electric vehicle factory in the region. At the time, Tesla didn’t comment on the report, but now CEO Elon Musk denies that a deal was signed:

@mashable We haven't signed anything for a factory in China

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 27, 2016

Earlier this year, Musk confirmed that the automaker plans on securing a location and a local partner for a manufacturing facility in China by the middle of the 2016, but now we learn that there’s a possibility that Tesla will not have to create a partnership as the government is exploring the a lift of the cap on joint-ventures for automakers.
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There’s no doubt that Tesla likes big factories. Its Fremont Factory is one of the biggest buildings on earth with 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space – pictured above. The Gigafactory is set to be the biggest building on earth by footprint with 13 million square feet of space. The automaker also operates several other smaller but still fairly big facilities, like its final assembly line in Tilburg, Netherlands, which covers 840,000 square feet.

Now the company is about to invest in a factory in China. While the plans have yet to be unveiled, earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the automaker plans on securing a location and a local partner for a manufacturing facility in China by the middle of the 2016, and it looks like it will be huge.

We learn that Shanghai could now be the front-runner as Tesla reportedly signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” to invest in a $9 billion electric vehicle factory in the region.
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A few weeks ago, Tesla closed an important $1.7 billion stock offering to finance its new build plan for the Model 3. The capital raise was needed for Tesla to accelerate its production and achieve a rate of 500,000 cars in 2018 – two years earlier than previously planned.

The new plan is in response to the higher than expected demand for the Model 3. Tesla’s management was expecting 100,000 to 200,000 reservations at best, but the automaker already received over 373,000 reservations.

While Tesla already confirmed that some of the capital would be used for its operations, the company made it clear that most of the money would be put toward an expansion of the Fremont factory to increase production. Now we get a specific number for the expansion as Tesla is applying for a $106 million tax break with the state to help the project.
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Only three years ago in 2013, Tesla Model S’ first full year of production, the automaker built just over 20,000 vehicles or around 400 per week. Now we learn that Tesla recently achieved for the first time a production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week for an annualized rate of 104,000 cars.

In its last shareholders letter, the company announced that it aimed to exit the second quarter with a production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week – meaning that the company achieved its goal two weeks ahead of schedule. The achievement was crucial for Tesla to reach its delivery goal of 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles in 2016.
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Analyst Brad Erickson from Pacific Crest issued a new note to clients today following a visit of the Tesla Fremont Factory. The analyst noted that Tesla appears to be on track to exit the second quarter at the a production rate of 2,000 cars per week (Model S and X combined) and it is tracking toward its annual delivery target of 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles.

While Erickson appears confident that the automaker can achieve its short-term delivery goals, he is more cautious about Tesla’s new plan for 500,000 vehicles in 2018.
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Tesla officials have been discussing the possibility to establish a first factory in Europe for a while now. I say a “first factory”, but Tesla already has a plant in Europe – in Tilburg – but only for final assembly processes.

Earlier this year during a special event for Tesla owners at the automaker’s French headquarters in Chambourcy, CEO Elon Musk reiterated that in the near future Tesla will need to establish some manufacturing capacity in Europe – referring to a full-fledged factory to manufacture cars.

At the time, he nonchalantly brought up the possibility to build its first European electric car factory in Alsace, a northeastern French region on the Rhine River plain bordering Germany and Switzerland. It didn’t take long for French Energy Minister Ségolène Royal to suggest a site and meet with executives.

Now Spain wants to throw its hat in the ring and launches a campaign to attract Tesla’s first European factory.
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Tesla’s factory in Fremont is the only U.S. car assembly plant owned by an American automaker that is not represented by a union, but that’s just one of many things Tesla does unlike any other American (or otherwise) automaker.

Following the announcement of Tesla’s updated plans to increase its annual vehicle production at the factory to 500,000 cars by 2018  – 2 years earlier than previously planned, the United Auto Workers (UAW) expressed interest in unionizing Tesla’s workforce at the factory. One could look at the move as being opportunistic by the UAW to significantly increase its numbers or as a move to help protect workers it perceives being exploited by Tesla’s ever-expanding needs.

UAW President Dennis Williams said that up until now, the union was respecting Tesla’s startup status, but the new production rate would quickly make the electric automaker one of the largest car manufacturer in the nation and bigger than more established luxury automakers like BMW and Mercedes.

Williams is right that Tesla plans to quickly become as big as other automakers, but does higher volume alone justify the implementation of a union?
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A report from the Bay Area News Group Watchdog published in the Mercury News this weekend suggests that foreign workers were brought in from Slovenia with nonimmigrant visa for tourism and business, known as a B1, in order to build Tesla’s new paint shop at the Fremont factory in California.

The report described an unfortunately common practice in the construction industry of importing a workforce to do manual labor for low wages. Tesla was used as an example in the article because of the fact that most of the information is coming from a lawsuit between one of those workers, Tesla and their subcontractors following an accident while under their employment.

Now Tesla issued a response to the claims made in the article.
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Earlier this year, we reported on a new proposed bill in California to eliminate the sales tax on new cars manufactured in the state for out-of-state buyers. The bill aims to spur “industrial tourism” and encourage people to come pick up their new Teslas at the automaker’s Fremont factory without having to pay California’s sales tax.

The bill, which was proposed by Tesla and is sponsored by Sen. Bob Wieckowski whose district is home to Tesla’s Fremont factory, is now facing strong opposition as some legislators suggest it only aims at offering tax breaks to rich people able to afford luxury vehicles.
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Following Tesla’s announcement that it plans to double its total production output to 500,000 vehicles in 2018 and 1 million in 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked by analysts how and where he plans to manufacture those vehicles.

While the company has been talking about plans to build more vehicle factories in Europe and China, Tesla’s Fremont factory remains its only full-fledged car manufacturing facility. Company officials have always referred to the Fremont plant’s total capacity to be around 500,000 cars per year once optimized, which is what Toyota and GM were producing when they owned the factory, until now.
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The World Energy Innovation Forum (WEIF) managed to secure not only an impressive lineup of industry leaders to speak at the event, but also quite a venue for this year’s conference. The forum will take place Wednesday and Thursday at the Tesla Fremont Factory in Fremont, California.
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