Tesla idles California plant to retool for electric SUVs

Tesla Motors Inc. halted production at its sole assembly plant for the first time for a revamp the company said is necessary to speed Model S output and prepare it to make electric crossovers.

Work to reconfigure the production floor at the former NUMMI plant in Fremont, Calif., began today and vehicle assembly resumes Aug. 4 with a goal of boosting production by 25 percent, Simon Sproule, a Tesla spokesman, said in an interview. Upgrades mainly involve modifications to the factory’s body and general assembly lines and will cost about $100 million, he said. 

“This represents the single biggest investment in the plant since we really started operations and enables us for higher volumes,” Sproule said by phone today. “It gets us ready to build X and to do it on the same line as the S.”

CEO Elon Musk, who also leads rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has said he wants Tesla to deliver at least 35,000 Model S sedans to global customers this year, a jump of about 56 percent from 2013. The company’s expansion is led by the start of shipments to China and the U.K. in the second quarter, followed by deliveries to Hong Kong, Japan and Australia in the year’s second half.

Tesla, which charges from $71,000 for its Model S in the U.S., was producing almost 700 units per week at the end of the first quarter with a goal of increasing that to 1,000 later this year, Musk said in a May 7 letter to investors.

Weekly production at the plant was approaching 800 units ahead of the current project, Sproule said. Musk in May had said the upgrades would idle plant production for about 10 days in July.

'Laser-focused'

“I’m sure with the popularity of the vehicle and need for production and the fact that it’s the sole production facility they are laser-focused on changing over and revamping it as quickly as they can,” said Michael Robinet, a managing director at IHS Automotive in suburban Detroit.

Fremont, which also makes the car’s lithium-ion battery pack and motor, needs to be modified to start building Model X SUVs later this year, Sproule said. Pricing for the battery-powered light truck, which ships to customers early next year, hasn’t been announced yet.

During the retooling period, assembly workers can take vacation time or come to the plant for maintenance and training shifts, Sproule said. Tesla is California’s largest automotive employer with more than 6,000 people working at its plant, headquarters, design center, stores and service facilities.

Cheap batteries 

Tesla’s modifications this month affect the sole auto-assembly plant on the U.S. West Coast. The factory opened in the early 1960s as a General Motors plant and then operated for 25 years as a joint venture between GM and Toyota Motor Corp. until 2009.

Toyota is a Tesla shareholder. When Toyota President Akio Toyoda arranged for Tesla to buy the plant for $42 million in 2010, he gave the facility a new life and helped Musk start Model S production in 2012.

Tesla is revamping Fremont as it prepares to announce locations where it will start initial construction of a battery factory. The company has said it’s studying sites in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas for the plant that it claims will cost as much as $5 billion to build and eventually employ as many as 6,500 people. Musk said the plant is needed to cut the cost of lithium-ion cells at least 30 percent.

Sproule declined to say when the company will announce a decision on where it wants to build the factory.

'More challenges'

Cheap batteries are essential to Tesla’s goal of selling its Model 3 sedan by 2017, a smaller electric car with a base price about half that of Model S. The plant will also make battery packs for homes and businesses to store power from solar panels to reduce use of electricity from utilities.

“As they move forward and add more vehicles additional complexity will create more challenges,” Robinet said. “Given what they had to do they’ve done a very good job. They are putting together very complex machines.”

The company is to release second-quarter results, including revenue from initial sales in China and the U.K., on July 31 after the close of New York trading.

Tesla now California's top automotive employer

Tesla has knocked off Toyota as the biggest auto employer in the state of California, employing over 6,000 people to the Japanese company's 5,300. That lead is only likely to grow, as the EV manufacturer prepares to add another 500 jobs by the end of the year, and as Toyota begins its relocation to its new North American headquarters in Texas. The news comes barely a week after the company announced a $50 million loss during the first quarter of 2014.

Tesla's statewide employment could be set to double, beyond even 6,500 people, if it follows through on rumors to construct its eagerly awaited gigafactory in the Golden State. The $5-billion venture could add another 6,500 employees, making Tesla not just the largest automotive employer in the state, but making it one of the largest employers in the state full stop.

The investment of Tesla and its founder (and real-life Tony Stark), Elon Musk, has been substantial. The company has added 3,000 employees in the state since 2013, reopening the Toyota and General Motorsjoint-venture factory that use to be known as NUMMI in 2009 and constructing a design studio in Los Angeles, all in addition to its Palo Alto headquarters.

News Source: Bloomberg

Image Credit: Paul Sakuma / AP

A Look Inside The Tesla Factory - VIDEO

In 1984, GM and Toyota joined forces to open the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, a state-of-the-art factory that built such memorable vehicles as the Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe. Today though, the Fremont factory produces a truly futuristic vehicle, the Tesla Model S. The National Geographic series “Megafactories” takes a look inside this futuristic facility.

Suffice to say, if you’re an electric car fan, this is a must-watch video. Everything about the Tesla Factory just screams “21st century”, which is appropriate because it is building arguably the most futuristic vehicle on the roads. The facility that puts together the Model S is nothing like the dingy old car factory that GM and Toyota once shared.

Everything is bright, well-lit, and almost sterile looking in its whiteness. There are skylights and robots and touchscreens everywhere, as well as bicycles for getting. Yes, bicycles. Now that’s progressive.

While automakers around the world have taken to greening their plants, including adding solar panels and rooftop gardens, Tesla has really embraced what it means to be the future. Like we said, this is a must-watch for any Tesla or EV fan.

Source: Gas2.0

Tesla Looks to 2015 For New Roadster as well as Series 3 Beaters

Tesla’s first electric car, the 2007-2011 Roadster, may have ceased production after its planned 2,500 (ish) car production run, but the Tesla Roadster will live on in an all-new car for 2014, Tesla has confirmed.

In an interview with Autocar, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed what we already suspected: that an all-new 2015 Tesla Roadster would come to market some time in 2014.

The news is hardly surprising. After all, Tesla has already detailed how it plans to use the chassis and power train from its 2012 Model S luxury sedan to spawn a whole new range of vehicles, including the Model X Crossover SUV, a van, and a cabriolet.

But the new roadster won’t be based on the Model S platform. Instead, it is most likely going to be built on a brand-new platform produced by shortening the existing Model S chassis.

2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011

Enlarge Photo

And that shortened chassis, which Musk called a “Third generation platform”, will also give rise to a new range of mass-market [read affordable] cars which will go head-to-head with cars from mainstream automakers.

“This platform will spawn a range of cars in the next four to five years,” Musk told Autocar. “It’ll be a more mass-market platform for cars like a 3-series as well as the new Roadster. These cars will supplement the Model S range.”

In other words, Tesla is determined to break out of the niche market and into the mainstream auto industry in the next five years.

And with Tesla’s expansive former NUMMI factory currently operating at just a tiny fraction of its potential capacity, the firm certainly has the potential to simultaneously produce many different models at capacities to rival many other mainstream automakers.

There’s no word on what we can expect from Tesla’s reborn 2015 Roadster, nor is there any indication of cost. But given the 300+ mile capability of its 2012 Model S Sedan, as well as its sporty sub 4.5 second 0-60 time, we can expect the 2015 Tesla Roadster to feature both excellent performance and impressive range.

Source: Green Car Reports

GM Pulls Plug On NUMMI Joint Venture

It looks like it is NUMMI no more. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota set up a joint venture and created NUMMI, or New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated. The creation spawned the Pontiac Vibe.

However, since the announcement of Pontiac's demise, the big wigs at GM see no further need for keeping the plant open. There have been many rumors that Toyota would help GM produce a Prius-like vehicle, but no one can validate this. GM's official stance is that they are not working with Toyota and instead are working diligently on their hybrid offerings. None of GM's hybrids operate like a Prius, however.

As part of General Motor's bankruptcy reorginaztion they are designating assets as either "old or new" GM. NUMMI has fallen into the old GM category and thus will be left in the bankruptcy dust.

One has to wonder if this is yet one more bad decision by GM management. What do you think? Is this move good or bad for GM?