Tesla's Gigafactory Taking Shape In 4K Drone Footage

Megalith

Megalith

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It isn’t expected to be finished until 2018, but the complex appears to finally be taking shape. It'll have a huge footprint that will stretch 107 NFL football fields.

Fresh footage by Matthew Roberts, shot with a DJI Phantom 3 drone in 4K, shows how far the project has progressed. As expected, there's still a long way to go -- only a handful of the 21 Gigafactory "blocks" have been completed so far. Even so, it's an enormous building that dominates the picturesque desert landscape. When the Gigafactory is complete, Tesla hopes to produce 35 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of capacity each year. That's enough to keep up with its planned production rate of 500,000 cars per year. It'll have a huge footprint, stretching 107 NFL football fields in total.
 
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Even though I just got my 2017 Volt... I really have my eye on a Tesla in the next few years, after they get the kinks worked out of their Model 3. (I'd love a Model S but I have a mortgage damn it) Even though I do love my Volt... there have been two major issues and the way GM handled it all... well the company is run exactly like a company that old would be expected to run, like total shit.

With the volt and the bolt -- they are damn fine cars, problem is unless they still have the old geezer line of thinking across the entire company. My car has constant 4G connectivity that I'll never have to pay for... and yet any updates that happen, I still have to drag the car in like a caveman and waste an hour or two of my life if I ever want the fixes to any software problems.

Looking forward to see how Tesla takes on the "affordable" market, I'll be saving my pennies that's for sure.
 
Geez what is that lifeless monstrosity of a building? Is it just like one endless empty looking assembly line production facility? I mean, are there offices and palm trees with artificial water falls or anything attractive whatsoever? I mean Apple and Google and just about every other tech company always goes out of their way to make the work environment enjoyable to come to. This place just looks like hell.
 
nysmo said:
Geez what is that lifeless monstrosity of a building? Is it just like one endless empty looking assembly line production facility? I mean, are there offices and palm trees with artificial water falls or anything attractive whatsoever? I mean Apple and Google and just about every other tech company always goes out of their way to make the work environment enjoyable to come to. This place just looks like hell.
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It's a factory, not a think-tank. Go look up Foxconn or Pegatron if you want to see what Apple's "enjoyable work environment" looks like on the factory side of things ;)
 
nysmo said:
Geez what is that lifeless monstrosity of a building? Is it just like one endless empty looking assembly line production facility? I mean, are there offices and palm trees with artificial water falls or anything attractive whatsoever? I mean Apple and Google and just about every other tech company always goes out of their way to make the work environment enjoyable to come to. This place just looks like hell.
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Let me know when you find a large scale manufacturing facility on Google's bay area campus.

This place is intended to more than double the world's battery manufacturing capacity. It was never going to be small.
 
This place will be a superfund site in 10 years. Not that I can't tolerate a certain number of necessary polluting plants to keep technology going but this is to produce a half million electric cars per year that don't compete with gas cars. A bunch of 200 mile and under ultra dangerous ultra expensive slow charging boondoggles. All in the name of... what?

Mass production of these batteries isn't going to solve the underlying problem. Even if the cars are a parity on cost, they are a negative on usefulness.

Best thing we can hope for is that all this battery production ends up going to more useful places than car battery packs. Cheaper lithium batteries built in the USA has potential just not in cars.
 
I am 17th in Colorado for a Model 3... but I just can't see Tesla delivering the Model 3 on time. I currently have a 2012 Leaf and will probably end up getting a Chevy Bolt in the coming months once they're offered in Colorado. Depending on the timing with the lease of the Bolt I may or may not end up with a Model 3.

In this case GM beat Tesla to the punch.

In either case I hope all EV car succeed. TBH I never want to own an ICE vehicle again. Gas is so last century :)
 
I love how excited everyone is over there model 3s.

A car that isn't even done yet? Will it have free blowjobs? Maybe. A tendency to burst into flames? Maybe?
 
Verge said:
I love how excited everyone is over there model 3s.

A car that isn't even done yet? Will it have free blowjobs? Maybe. A tendency to burst into flames? Maybe?
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Design was finalized about 5 months ago. Tesla plans to reveal final design around March 2017.
 
Advil said:
This place will be a superfund site in 10 years. Not that I can't tolerate a certain number of necessary polluting plants to keep technology going but this is to produce a half million electric cars per year that don't compete with gas cars. A bunch of 200 mile and under ultra dangerous ultra expensive slow charging boondoggles. All in the name of... what?

Mass production of these batteries isn't going to solve the underlying problem. Even if the cars are a parity on cost, they are a negative on usefulness.

Best thing we can hope for is that all this battery production ends up going to more useful places than car battery packs. Cheaper lithium batteries built in the USA has potential just not in cars.
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Thats the most stupid post I have read this week.....

There is no reason why modern battery factory would become superfund site.
200+ mile EVs will IMO compete quite well against comparable ICEVs (Tesla already proved that with Model S).
Care to explain how they are "ultra dangerous"?
Care to explain how they are "ultra expensive" vs comparable ICEVs (lets say Tesla Model S vs. BMW 7 series)?
Charging speed is IMO not a problem with Tesla (normally charged overnight and when travelling, using Superchargers - most people stop every 2-3 hours anyway).
Saying that EVs have "negative usefullness" just shows that you are an ignorant idiot.
 
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Rebel44 said:
Design was finalized about 5 months ago. Tesla plans to reveal final design around March 2017.
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So you preordered a car that you cannot answer those last two questions, and have no idea how much it even costs.

Lol
 
Verge said:
So you preordered a car that you cannot answer those last two questions, and have no idea how much it even costs.

Lol
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both "questions" were idiotic and we know the answers.

Cost of base model is known and we have reasonable estimates of cost of likely options.

And preorder deposit is fully refundable, so those who preordered just have $1K less in the bank earning 0.1% interest.
 
Rebel44 said:
both "questions" were idiotic and we know the answers.

Cost of base model is known and we have reasonable estimates of cost of likely options.

And preorder deposit is fully refundable, so those who preordered just have $1K less in the bank earning 0.1% interest.
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It's definitely refundable, and widely speculated done in order to stave off selling more stock.

But nobody know the final price, probably not even Elon at this point. It's all speculation.
 
Why worry about design issues now, when the real issues surface in early production phase. Long as nothing is leaking on floor of the gigafactory, the land won't become a superfund site anytime soon.
 
Verge said:
It's definitely refundable, and widely speculated done in order to stave off selling more stock.

But nobody know the final price, probably not even Elon at this point. It's all speculation.
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Its "widely speculated" by clueless paranoid idiots - limit is 2 preorders per customer (so no fleet preorders) and its obvoious to anyone who paid attention that tons of people came to stores (even more later preordered via internet) and placed deposists even before car was revealed. If Tesla wanted to boost numbers, they could have just removed limitation for number of preorders per customer.

$35K is a final base price of Model 3 and we have pretty good idea what will be the cost of options - average selling price will obviously be well over $40K, but that is not exactly a problem for Tesla.
 
Rebel44 said:
Its "widely speculated" by clueless paranoid idiots - limit is 2 preorders per customer (so no fleet preorders) and its obvoious to anyone who paid attention that tons of people came to stores (even more later preordered via internet) and placed deposists even before car was revealed. If Tesla wanted to boost numbers, they could have just removed limitation for number of preorders per customer.

$35K is a final base price of Model 3 and we have pretty good idea what will be the cost of options - average selling price will obviously be well over $40K, but that is not exactly a problem for Tesla.
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Nobody knows the final base price. Elon has tweeted a price, and Elon has tweeted what he things the ASP will be. But even he doesn't know.

This is a fact, not sure why you are trying to argue it?
 
Verge said:
Nobody knows the final base price. Elon has tweeted a price, and Elon has tweeted what he things the ASP will be. But even he doesn't know.

This is a fact, not sure why you are trying to argue it?
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Base price has been officially announced 9 months ago at $35K and since they have all the contracts for parts etc. signed, they must know their total cost.
 
Verge said:
Nobody knows the final base price. Elon has tweeted a price, and Elon has tweeted what he things the ASP will be. But even he doesn't know.

This is a fact, not sure why you are trying to argue it?
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Some apparently can't do a simple Google or Youtube search. The price was clearly stated in the unveiling video verbally and in large text as 35k without any options. This was a basic fact for a long time, not sure where you go for your EV tech news but it sounds lazy and unprofessional.

Again to be extra clear:
- You can get the base model for 35k, no mystery there whatsoever.
- If you wanna add autopilot, a second motor for all-wheel drive, a larger battery pack for higher range (>200 miles), fancier entertainment system, fancier rims, fancier seats etc, that's extra, clearly stated and common knowledge.
- Average price is expected to be 42k because they expect people to pick some options like many do when they buy cars, but if you wanna pay only 35k, the base model is 35k.
 
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Hopefully the car and home battery businesses work out because that's a huge investment.
 
pxc said:
Hopefully the car and home battery businesses work out because that's a huge investment.
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What they're doing is peanuts compared to what China's up to, their EV market is booming due to massive subsidies, and have a dozen emerging auto makers and startups wanting to be the next Toyota or Samsung some day.

https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/22/china-electric-cars-sales-record-43441-november/

The Chinese market had a record 43,441 new electric cars zooming the streets in November, up 36% over last October and 56% year over year (YoY), pulling the plug-in market share to a record 1.4%, above the USA (1.1%) and Europe (1.2%).

With the market share continuing to rise bit by bit, the Chinese EV market will end the year at over 350,000 new electric cars, pulling the total plug-in fleet to over 650,000 units, which will be the largest in the world, above the US (560,000) and Europe (630,000).
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They're very serious about controlling the market. It's either gonna be the Gigafactory/Tesla-likes or China dominating the energy industry in 50 years looks like, we'll see who has the stronger will/means to be on top soon enough.
 
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Rebel44 said:
Base price has been officially announced 9 months ago at $35K and since they have all the contracts for parts etc. signed, they must know their total cost.
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No they didn't, you can read the entire transcript. The price they are quoting is an estimation.

The official price won't be revealed until the final press conference, which we assume will be in march... maybe later.


One of the top Telsa analysts doesn't even think the model 3 will launch in 2017. But hey, that "around 35000" price is definitely written in stone!

https://electrek.co/2016/12/09/tesla-model-3-adam-jonas-morgan-stanley/
 
Wierdo said:
What they're doing is peanuts compared to what China's up to, their EV market is booming due to massive subsidies, and have a dozen emerging auto makers and startups wanting to be the next Toyota or Samsung some day.
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Tesla has fairly modest sales goals, and the factory is made to supply that demand, so even if China has a larger market or more factories, the gigafactory is still filling a demand that could be successful if Tesla's projections are realistic.

Tesla was/is pretty much buying Chinese manufactured Panasonic batteries, I doubt it will be completely dropped since having a second source could be necessary at various points in the future. The scale of the factory to be somewhat competitive is a bit risky, which is all I meant.
 
pxc said:
Tesla has fairly modest sales goals, and the factory is made to supply that demand, so even if China has a larger market or more factories, the gigafactory is still filling a demand that could be successful if Tesla's projections are realistic.

Tesla was/is pretty much buying Chinese manufactured Panasonic batteries, I doubt it will be completely dropped since having a second source could be necessary at various points in the future. The scale of the factory to be somewhat competitive is a bit risky, which is all I meant.
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Yeah, a bit of a side tangent but I'm pretty concerned about it as well, though from a slightly different angle:

On the global stage it seems there's a fierce race to the top going on at the moment. For example Chinese giant BYD - one of many - that alone outproduces Tesla by about double, some argue it's already ahead in many ways.

But Tesla/Panasonic's battery technology has a major cost/efficiency advantage on the other hand to make up for it at the moment.

It's too close a call right now to guess who will win in the long run:
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Tesla-Is-Playing-Catch-Up-With-Chinas-BYD

Tesla_versus_BYD_chart.png


China knows what's up.
 
Wierdo said:
China knows what's up.
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Yeah, they may have a tightly controlled central government, but they aren't restricting stimulus (somewhat expected central communist planning) to get into new growing segments or discouraging a race to the bottom in pricing (ultra capitalistic). It's a weird combination when you think about it. That it works is amazing.
 
Wonder if they intend to put solar panels on the roof 'cause if not then that's a tremendous waste of potential I'd say.
 
pxc said:
Tesla has fairly modest sales goals, and the factory is made to supply that demand, so even if China has a larger market or more factories, the gigafactory is still filling a demand that could be successful if Tesla's projections are realistic.

Tesla was/is pretty much buying Chinese manufactured Panasonic batteries, I doubt it will be completely dropped since having a second source could be necessary at various points in the future. The scale of the factory to be somewhat competitive is a bit risky, which is all I meant.
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just a detail - Panasonic batteries supplied to Tesla are made in Japan.
 
Tiberian said:
Wonder if they intend to put solar panels on the roof 'cause if not then that's a tremendous waste of potential I'd say.
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Because the amount of energy you would generate is pushing in the wind.

Park in the sun all day, and you'll literally burn that energy just trying to cool the car off with AC.

In a perfect world with you might get .5 kwh, and a toasted paint job.
 
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