Tesla's new Lathrop, CA facility

[EarlyAdopter]

Of all the theories I like the "begin tooling up and building the machines that will build the battery cells" swag best. They have all the room they could want at Fremont, so why buy and outfit another smaller factory? Viewing Lathrop as a stop gap, temporary location as a way to bootstrap a gigafactory makes some sense.

Here's hoping a Wall Street analyst asks on the Q1 call (or Tesla discloses in their Q1 earnings report).

 

[Yggdrasill]

I definitely think this is a bullish move.

My guess is that they plan on making Fremont a pure assembly plant, with multiple production lines for Model S, Model X and Gen 3. If their long-term plans already show the Fremont factory as being too small, it's natural to separate out parts of the manufacturing to other locations, whenever and wherever convenient. I think there's nothing specifically that they will make at Lathrop, it will just be any mechanical parts required in any of their products.

 

[matbl]

Manufacturing of parts seems like a good guess.
But. First renovating the facility and then bring it up from scratch and hire and train people and then start to do test manufacturing before finally going to full production takes a lot of time. So my guess is that this is for parts for Gen III time frame. No way this factory will be up to production speed before the second half of next year if even then.
Note Gen III time frame, not necessarily only Gen III, it will in that case probably do parts for S and X as well, at least to start with.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

A brief scouting report of the facility from @palmer_md in the context of a supercharger there:

NorCal Supercharger locations? - Page 19

 

[VolkerP]

Of all the theories I like the "begin tooling up and building the machines that will build the battery cells" swag best. They have all the room they could want at Fremont, so why buy and outfit another smaller factory? Viewing Lathrop as a stop gap, temporary location as a way to bootstrap a gigafactory makes some sense.

Sounds plausible to me. Elon surely wants to control timeline and cost of tooling the GigaFactory. It is a GigaFactory after all, so existing tool manufacturers might scramble at the task of ramping up their production in time.
Then there is no necessity to keep this work close to Fremont (50 miles away) or Hawthorne. And Lathrop is right on the way between Fremont and Reno, NV.

 

[Chickenlittle]

Now reading that they leased plant and that tesla has let 625,000 sq ft in ca without including show rooms or service sites. This plant with 425,000 sq ft. Anyone with more info?

 

[dsm363]

Could this be some mega delivery center for out of state customers like BMW does for overseas? They would have had to work some deal out with the state on tax and temp tag to drive car for a week maybe before shipping.

 

[markb1]

Could this be some mega delivery center for out of state customers like BMW does for overseas? They would have had to work some deal out with the state on tax and temp tag to drive car for a week maybe before shipping.

I was thinking, based on its proximity to the port, that it might be a storage facility for overseas shipments. But the job listing seem to indicate it has some manufacturing purpose.

 

[InTheShadows]

I do not see it as simply a storage facility. That would not fit with lean manufacturing, and Elon is all about lean.

Something will be produced there. With the job descriptions it has to be a facility that will be doing some sort of manufacturing. Elon is all about automation and maximizing flow. What ever will be done here will very likely amaze most people and it will have to be something that can be done more efficiently at a different location than the main factory.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

A manufacturing facility for center consoles and CHAdeMO adapters?! :tongue:

 

[techmaven]

Of all the theories I like the "begin tooling up and building the machines that will build the battery cells" swag best. They have all the room they could want at Fremont, so why buy and outfit another smaller factory? Viewing Lathrop as a stop gap, temporary location as a way to bootstrap a gigafactory makes some sense.

This. I think this makes the most sense to me. Anything part of making the car itself would seem to make sense to build in Fremont. So what don't they build? The cells. So Gigafactory 0.1 makes sense. Tesla needs to get a small scale production line up and running in order to finalize their vendor selections. That way the Gigafactory is a scale up build of Gigafactory 0.1.

 

[dsm363]

And lighted visors too

 

[c041v]

A manufacturing facility for center consoles and CHAdeMO adapters?! :tongue:

Hehe. I was going to cheekily suggest $3 USB cables and Czech tires as a part of the "less stupid" initiative.

Keep in mind, SpaceX does a lot of in-house manufacturing. I'm fairly sure that cars and rockets have virtually nothing in common in terms of assembly, but SpaceX's approach is forcing the competition to reprice because they are so effectively cutting the cost of launching rockets.

 

[mrdoubleb]

This. I think this makes the most sense to me. Anything part of making the car itself would seem to make sense to build in Fremont. So what don't they build? The cells. So Gigafactory 0.1 makes sense. Tesla needs to get a small scale production line up and running in order to finalize their vendor selections. That way the Gigafactory is a scale up build of Gigafactory 0.1.

Well... if we go with the battery factory idea for this site, that would certainly be a ballsy move. A kind of proof of concept to the Gigafactory that shows the world and potential partners they can produce their own batteries.

Anyway, it will probably be something we haven't thought of. This speculation game is fun, but it just makes me wait the ER even more. A new investment like that should be in the books, so we should find out in 2 weeks.

 

[DaveT]

This. I think this makes the most sense to me. Anything part of making the car itself would seem to make sense to build in Fremont. So what don't they build? The cells. So Gigafactory 0.1 makes sense. Tesla needs to get a small scale production line up and running in order to finalize their vendor selections. That way the Gigafactory is a scale up build of Gigafactory 0.1.

But the facility is a CNC machining facility. Does battery cell production really require a bunch of CNC machines?

My guess is with parts, most likely motor and other small/medium metal parts.

 

[Yggdrasill]

I can't really see that one would need too many CNC machines for making batteries. And I would think Panasonic or Samsung would do the cell-related manufacturing.

As such, a Gigafactory 0.1 just doesn't seem likely to me. Assorted metal parts machining still seems most likely.

 

[Chickenlittle]

I can't really see that one would need too many CNC machines for making batteries. And I would think Panasonic or Samsung would do the cell-related manufacturing.

As such, a Gigafactory 0.1 just doesn't seem likely to me. Assorted metal parts machining still seems most likely.

so much room at freemont facility keep thinking why take on more space. a bargain that cant be passed up doesnt seem likely since they are leasing the space. what technology would need to be physically removed from factory so as not to disrupt. exploring battery production could be one. would there be risk of fire with learning to make lithium ion batteries? they also seem to have leased more space than just this factory per the email quoted on over 600,000 sq ft leased not including service centers or stores. where is the other space?

 

[techmaven]

But the facility is a CNC machining facility. Does battery cell production really require a bunch of CNC machines?

My guess is with parts, most likely motor and other small/medium metal parts.

My feeling on that is that the limited number of actual jobs there means they are looking at building parts of the assembly line to that will be used to build cells and packs in the Gigafactory. In other words, they are bootstrapping the custom parts of the assembly line. Of course, totally WAG.

 

[jkeyser14]

I am guessing that the CNC shop will be used for making the Model X stamping dies, tooling, etc.

 

[GreenT]

Manufacturing of battery swapping equipment?