Tesla Gigafactory could be biggest building in the world

With a name like Gigafactory, we all knew that Tesla's upcoming new facility in Nevada would be big. We just didn't know how big. But the latest reports give us some insight into just how massive the factory could end up being.

The original plans for the Tesla Gigafactory call for a facility with a footprint of 5.8 million square feet, on two stories for 10 million square feet of floor space. That would already give it the largest footprint of any building in the world. But that could just end up proving the starting point.

The Gigafactory is being built in a modular fashion, and Tesla is reportedly buying up adjacent plots of land in order to expand the facility. Another 1,200 acres have reportedly already been acquired, with an additional 350 or more on top of that also being looked into. Three modular blocks in addition to the original four could take it up to 24 million square feet of floor space. That would not only give it the biggest footprint, but also the most floorspace of any building in the world – a boast currently claimed by the New Century Global Center, a multi-use complex in Chengdu, China, that incorporates a offices, hotels, movie theaters, a university campus, a skating rink, and a water park on its 18+ million square feet of space.

It remains to be seen whether the interior volume of the Gigafactory would end up displacing the Boeing factory in Everett, WA. By our calculations, though, if the Gigafactory is built with ceilings any higher than 20 feet, it would take that record, too. It'll likely emerge as the largest automotive assembly plant as well, but it won't be used exclusively for making vehicles. Much of it would be dedicated to manufacturing batteries for use both electric cars and real estate (residential, commercial, and industrial) applications.

Tesla Delivers 10,000 Vehicles In First Quarter, Up 55% Over 2014

In a departure from its usual practice, Tesla first quarter sales figures have been released by the company. Previously, chairman Elon Musk refused to disclose any information about company sales other than the minimum required by Securities Exchange Commission filings, claiming that making monthly sales reports like every other car company in the world just gives the media an excuse “to read all sorts of nonsense into the deliveries.”

But in a press release on April 3, Musk said the company would now provide quarterly sales figures within 3 days of the end of each quarter. And what those figures show is that Tesla delivered 10.030 vehicles in the first quarter of 2015 — a 55% increase over 2014. He says he decided to change the way the company released sales information because “inaccurate sources of information are sometimes used by others to project the number of vehicle deliveries.” In other words, a cottage industry has sprung up among bloggers and talking heads — mostly stock analysts — who are trying, and failing, to make intelligent guesses about what is happening inside the company based on very limited data.

The press release cautions, “There may be small changes to this delivery count (usually well under 1%), as Tesla only counts a delivery if it is transferred to the end customer and all paperwork is correct. Also, this is only one measure of our financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of our quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles.”

Lots of people — most of them investors — are extremely interested in what Tesla is up to so they can decide whether to buy or sell Tesla stock. Some of the reports in the press over the past two yearshave bordered on the hysterical. Hopefully, Tesla’s new sales reporting policy will help to quench the public’s thirst for information. Which, after all, is the reason your are reading this, right?

Tesla Chief Information Officer: Model 3 Price Target Is $30,000 To $40,000

Tesla Model 3 Price Target Is $30,000 To $40,000

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Usually, it’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk who hints at pricing for the upcoming Model 3.  However, this time it’s Tesla chief information officer, Jay Vijayan, who provides us with Tesla’s Model 3 price target:

“Our target price for Model 3 is in the range of $30,000 to $40,000 that makes it an ideal product in the luxury car segment.  India is a huge potential market, but we need to have more affordable and economical cars.”

Vijayan was discussing Tesla’s future plans in India, which includes the possibility of constructing a factory there, but what piqued our interest is that someone other than Elon Musk confirmed this less-than-$40,000 price target for the Model 3.  Let’s hope Tesla can deliver on this target.

Per the Economic Times:

Tesla Motors, the world’s most successful electric car maker, plans to enter the Indian market with its upcoming sedan that will be priced at less than half of its existing model even as the country’s high import duty remains a big obstacle, a top executive said.

“India has one of the highest import duty in the world — in excess of 100% — that goes against our principal of importing car directly from our plants at Freemont in the US or the assembly unit in Netherlands,” Vijayan said.

“We have identified India is one of the potential markets in Asia to have a local assembly plant, but we need a definite policy from the government to support electric vehicles in the future,” he said. Tesla plans to start a dialogue with the Indian government to rationalise import duty on electric cars and also develop a separate category for such vehicles.

Aside from China and Japan, India is clearly the biggest remaining market in Asia.  Tesla would sure like to capture a significant portion of India’s now-growing plug-in vehicle market.

Source: Economic Times

Tesla CEO Elon Musk: General Motors “Should Have Gone to EV2 and EV3″

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EV1 Alongside Chevy Volt

In a candid interview with Autocar, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was asked:

EV1

“Did GM miss a trick by killing its speculative all-electric EV1 in the late 1990s?”

His response:

“They should have gone to EV2 and EV3, iterating it and making it better.  The EV1 was not a great car. It had a lot of issues. But it was good enough to encourage people to take extraordinary steps to try to keep it and to hold candle-lit vigils when it was crushed. They don’t do that for other GM products.”

The passion displayed by EV1 leasees should have been enough to convince General Motors to carry on with the program.  If GM had done what Musk says (EV2 and EV3), then it seems likely that Tesla Motors probably would not exist today.

GM created a cult of followers with the EV1.  Those followers surely would have stayed with GM for EV2 and EV3.  The word would’ve spread and GM would have become the dominant player in the EV space well before Tesla came on the scene.  If there were a dominant EV maker already in place, then there’s likely no way Musk would venture into that dominated space.

Fortunately, at least for Tesla, GM abandoned the EV1 program entirely, leaving all the room in the world for Tesla to carve its own niche.

Now Meets Old: Tesla Model S Lined Up Next to GM EV1

Source: Autocar

Tesla Among Best-Perceived Automakers In America

In a recent survey by Consumer Reports, Tesla Motors surged to become the 5th best-perceived car brand in America. Brand perception can be a powerful and fickle mistress, but so far Elon Musk has managed to ride a wave of positive press past many well-established automakers.

Once again Toyota stayed on top of the Consumer Reports study, scoring 25 more points than second-place Ford in seven different categories. Honda came in third, followed by Chevrolet, with all four of these brands regularly placing at the top of perception surveys.

But Tesla surged some 88 points this year, bringing it to fifth place and displacing Subuaru, which would have been 5th place. Tesla also beat Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, and Cadillac, brands Tesla stands in direct competition with. There’s now a Tesla Model S in all 50 U.S. states, and sales are surging outside of the U.S. too. No doubt all the glowing reviews and the 5-star safety rating helped, though Musk’s careful grooming of the brand’s image deserves a lot of credit too.

At this point, Tesla’s momentum is starting to snowball, and it will take a lot more than a couple of car fires to slow it down.

Source: Consumer Reports

Tesla Embarks On Record-Setting, Cross-Country Road Trip

At midnight on Thursday, a pair of Tesla Model S sedans left the Tesla design studio in Los Angeles on their way to New York City, hoping to set a Guinness World Record in the process. It’s all possible thanks to the recently-completed Supercharger network, which delivers a fast and free charge of electricity to the Model S.

Even though a father-daughter duo already completed the first cross-country trip in a Tesla Model S using the Supercharger network, Tesla itself has a specific goal in mind. The category they’re competing in is the “lowest charge time for an electric vehicle crossing the United States.” Sounds like a recently-invented category if you ask us, though cross-country electric vehicle races are nothing new.

The team of four drivers, split between two cars nicknamed “Thunder” and “Lightning”, is using the Twitter hashtag #DriveFree to keep fans in the loop following their cross-country journey. The three-day journey is set to conclude in New York City late Saturday, though weather is already trying to impede their progress. First, a sandstorm on the edge of Utah slowed them down, and the team is currently dealing with snow in Colorado.

Will Tesla be able to set an unbeatable record with all this inclimate weather in the way? We’ll know by Monday morning.

UPDATE: The Tesla Team is currently making its way through blizzard conditions towards a charging station in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Good luck guys!

Source: Gas 2.

BMW i3 Hits The Track For Some Hot Laps

Germany’s BMW brand has always been one for building the “Ultimate Driving Machine”, and there are those that worry that the rush to make cleaner, green cars is going to reduce performance. After seeing this video of the all-new BMW i3 electric car taking to the track for some hot laps though, I’m not the least bit worried that BMW is getting boring.

Now I’ll grant you that music and creative editing can go a long way in a video like this, and with a top speed of 93 just MPH, that 2014 BMW i3 isn’t going to set the world on fire. That’s what the much faster (and three times as expensive) BMW i8 is for. Still, the 7.2 second 0 to 60 mph time is on par with most mid-size sedans for acceleration, and is actually a couple of seconds faster than competitor vehicles like the Nissan Leaf or Fiat 500e.

This video highlights the supposed athletic abilities of the BMW i3, and with its rear-wheel drive putting 170 horsepower and 184 ft-lbs of torque to the ground. With an all-electric driving range of around 100 miles, and an optional gas-powered range extender that about doubles the range, the $42,000 electric Bimmer also happens to have a lot more go-juice than most of the competition. No wonder Germans placed more than 10,000 pre-orders for the spunky electric coupe.

For EV enthusiasts waiting for something more exciting than the Nissan Leaf, but can’t quite afford to shell out $70,000 for a Tesla Model S, the BMW i3 makes a pretty compelling pitch.

Source: Gas2.0