Posted on 02/15/2022 11:12:21 AM PST by Red Badger
VIDEO AT LINK......................
As Tesla's Gigafactory Texas manufacturing plant is getting closer to its grand opening— expected to take place before the end of this quarter—a video taken by a drone during a 360-degree flyover of the site serves as a reminder of how massive the electric vehicle plant is.
Shot by Joe Tegtmeyer, a drone operator who has been following the progress on Giga Texas since the beginning of construction work, this flyover video helps viewers appreciate the true scale of the factory.
You realize this is a giant building when the cars and even the semi trailers around it look like ants in comparison; or when you learn that circling the building once took 50% of the drone's battery charge, as Joe later acknowledged on Twitter.
What's also impressive is the number of cars parked outside, suggesting there's some intense activity happening inside the plant.
Unlike the Fremont site, which was built originally to produce internal combustion engine vehicles, Giga Texas is fully optimized for producing EVs and will likely snatch Fremont's title of North America's most productive car plant once production ramps up.
With an average production of 8,550 cars a week last year, Fremont overtook Toyota's facility in Georgetown, Kentucky (8,427 cars a week), BMW's Spartanburg plant in South Carolina (8,343) or Ford's truck plant in Dearborn, Michigan (5,564).
As with the Giga Berlin plant, the Austin, Texas facility will produce Model Y electric crossovers at first. However, whereas the Made-in-Germany Model Y will feature 2170 cells, the Texas-made version will pack the new 4680-type cylindrical battery cells, as confirmed by Tesla executives during the Q4 2021 financial report.
As a result, the Tesla Model Y will be company's first vehicle with a structural battery pack design.
Further down the line, Giga Texas will build the Cybertruck electric pickup and Semi electric truck, although there are no firm production start dates for any of these vehicles. During the latest earnings call, Elon Musk said there will be no new vehicle introductions in 2022, adding that they "hopefully" will happen in 2023.
We lost a man on the roof last year. Haven’t found him yet.
Like water seeking it’s lowest level, money seeks its highest return.....................
Your tax dollars at work.
[snip] In a year when auto production around the world was stifled by supply-chain shortages, Tesla expanded its global production by 83% over 2020 levels. Its other auto factory, in Shanghai, tripled output to nearly 486,000. [/snip]
Tesla Now Runs the Most Productive Auto Factory in America
Elon Musk’s California plant cranked out more cars than 70 competing facilities in North America. His next factories are even bigger.
By Tom Randall and Demetrios Pogkas
January 24, 2022
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-tesla-factory-california-texas-car-production/
Tell that to Ford who has 30+ billion in subsidies compared to 2.4 billion for Tesla and Tesla paid back it’s loan 9 years early in full. Ford still owes money, GM went bankrupt and will never pay it’s billions back. Nissan still owes billions
Ford borrowed $5.937 billion under the ATVM Loan Program. Ford still hasn’t paid that back.
As of today, Ford has had a total of at least $33,489,841,570 ($33.49 billion) in subsidies awarded.
Nissan borrowed $1.448 billion under the ATVM Loan Program and still hasn’t paid us back.
Nissan’s total subsidy value is $1,955,199,450 ($1.96 billion).
Fisker Automotive borrowed $529 million under the ATVM Loan Program and went bankrupt. We won’t get that money back.
GM and Chrysler both went into bankruptcy and had to be rescued under a separate program.
GM’s total subsidy value is $50,346,920,000 ($50.35 billion).
Fiat-Chrysler’s total subsidy value is $17,599,200,000 ($17.6 billion).
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/03/tesla-subsidies-how-much/
But hey don’t let facts get in the way of a good political hissy fit.
We do things pretty big in Washington State too: "It has 13.6 million square feet of floor space and the only building that is more voluminous is Boeing’s Everett Plant in Washington State."
So 'Ha".
Tesla hasn’t got the subsidy for a few years now. And Elon is anti subsidy.
Plus Tesla hasn’t got electric vehicle subsidies for a few years now. They make too many vehicles to qualify.
A lot of people blab nonsense about Tesla.
“This is the product of government subsidy.”
The electricity you use in your home everyday is a product of government authorized subsidy.
The military hardware that protects you daily is a product of government subsidy.
The highways you travel on daily are a product of government subsidies.
It is due to economies of scale. No one will invest in economies that require that can of investment with the return so far off.
This is the product of government subsidy.
************
As are many other things/products/etc as they are coming
out to the public. Life is a bitch at times or so I’m told.
One thing is sure, you live till you die. Live with it.
A lot of their profit comes from China only because they opened their Gigafactory in Shanghai to a receptive audience. When Gigafactories in Berlin and Austin come up this year, China will be their lowest profit margin location. All of a sudden, the tariffs coming from the USA and EU will be gone, and Teslas in these factories will be using their own batteries, unlike in China, where they will always come from a third party.
As Scorpio said to Dirty Harry when he saw Harry’s 44 magnum:.......”My......that’s a big one.”
Hard to say. The only reason they turned a quarterly profit was because of China. Musk loves China. That is a odd dynamic. Costs are high in the US.
The site is 2,500 acres. A portion of that is storm water retention to mitigate flash flooding around the area.
Giga Shanghai 
And there are others
“Ford has also received $33.5 billion in subsidies to produce electric vehicles that are not nearly as popular and reliable as the Tesla products.”
The statement that they are not as popular may have some merit if you look at the number of sales of Mach e’s vs all Teslas. It may not if you place Teslas and a Mach e side by side and see which one people like best.
The “not as reliable” comment is, I believe, unsupportable. Teslas are plagued with problems with software and hardware. For instance, search “Model Y roof blows off on highway”. Or search “Fix your Tesla”.
But perhaps you can substantiate that claim.
That’s some impressive construction going up so quick.
I didn’t see a rail spur to ship the cars. Is that not an efficient way of shipping? Buffet needs his cut.
They ship all their cars on battery powered Tesla Semis, right?
“But perhaps you can substantiate that claim.”
Thank you for politely challenging my inaccurate belief. I was wrong.
https://insideevs.com/news/489178/tesla-bombs-jd-powers-dependability-study/
Folks like you are why I love Free Republic!
Regards!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.