Popular Mechanics - Inside Tesla Factory

[SCW-Greg]

Article posted yesterday by Popular Mechanics. Looks to be mostly accurate including early production ramp up rates...

Take a Look Inside the Tesla Electric Car Factory - Popular Mechanics

[tdelta1000]

I think this was the best shot of the group.

[SCW-Greg]

I think this was the best shot of the group.

Yeah I hadn't seen that one before.

And I just found this tidbit interesting to note too...

"Currently Tesla is making only one Model S each day as it ramps up production, to make sure every procedure is in order. It plans to be producing 80 cars a day by the end of the year, during an 8-hour shift with 1200 to 1500 employees at work."

[Sans Gas]

One photo showed fluids being put in the car prior to test drive. What fluids are put in the car?

[roblab]

One photo showed fluids being put in the car prior to test drive. What fluids are put in the car?

Water cooled battery pack, water cooled motor and PEM, Air conditioning/heating "fluids", brake fluid. Probably not engine oil, gas, tranny fluid, radiator coolant, differential oil.

[Sans Gas]

What is "PEM" ?

[Lloyd]

What is "PEM" ?

This stands for "Power Electronics Module"

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/tesla-roadster.htm

[doug]

I don't think they're calling it the PEM in the Model S since the inverter and the charger are in separate boxes now.

One photo showed fluids being put in the car prior to test drive. What fluids are put in the car?

Which photo?

Water cooled battery pack, water cooled motor and PEM, Air conditioning/heating "fluids", brake fluid. Probably not engine oil, gas, tranny fluid, radiator coolant, differential oil.

There is of course diff oil, and coolant does pass through a radiator in the front of the car to dump heat to the air (though the temperatures are much lower than you'd have with an ICE). There are a few different coolant loops on the car, but my understanding is that they're able to mix through some automatic valves to move heat around as needed.

[Doug_G]

I don't think they're calling it the PEM in the Model S since the inverter and the charger are in separate boxes now.

Yep, an engineer corrected me on the terminology at the drive event. They're now saying "inverter" and "charger".

There is of course diff oil, and coolant does pass through a radiator in the front of the car to dump heat to the air (though the temperatures are much lower than you'd have with an ICE). There are a few different coolant loops on the car, but my understanding is that they're able to mix through some automatic valves to move heat around as needed.

The story I heard is that the cabin air conditioner loop is truly separate, but they can interconnect between the battery loop and the motor/inverter loop as needed.

[vfx]

One of the giant posters on the wall of the LA store has an image like this one. There are arrows pointing to the left shiny cylinder with the label "motor" and an arrow to the right cylinder saying "inverter". That caught me off guard. So the boxes under the back seats are the 'chargers"?