Tesla Motors Ramping Up For Even More EV Production

Tesla's Model S Four Door Sedan








Tesla Motors Inc. has been on the tip of the lance, so to speak, in electric-vehicle production.

It was Tesla that, audaciously enough, put together a battery pack from lithium ion cells found in consumer electronics and, even more audaciously, started selling cars in 2008. In the process, it prompted major automakers such as General Motors Co. to rethink EVs.

But so far Tesla has been selling small numbers of high-priced sports cars -- Ferrari-like volumes, if not prices. Its initial model, the Roadster, is built on gliders supplied by Lotus. Tesla has been on the perimeter of volume automotive production.

That's about to change as Tesla prepares for a sub-$50,000 sedan, the Model S. CEO Elon Musk said Tesla will reveal plans for its first full-scale production plant within a few weeks. The Palo Alto, Calif., company is hiring about 50 employees per month, mostly engineers and production specialists. It now has about 600 employees.

Musk said Tesla needs to scale up gradually. Still, he comes down squarely in favor of in-house production. Manufacturing will be "a core strength of Tesla's," Musk said in an interview last week.

"A lot of people think you can outsource the production problem, and I think that's really wishful thinking," he said.

Tesla's plant will handle stamping, painting, final assembly, body and chassis, and doors.

Musk said interviewing job applicants gives him an interesting window into his bigger rivals. He said Tesla meets a lot of young automotive engineers who feel that they're "stuck in molasses" -- in slow-moving careers with slow-moving companies.

Said Musk: "I do hear a lot of stories that could form the basis of a Dilbert cartoon."


Source: Automotive News