Tesla, Fremont California

[StoneNewB]

Good afternoon! I was curious if anyone on here is currently supporting any Tesla projects out in Cali. If you are, how do you like it out there? I'm heading there soon so I just wanted some input on what you like/don't like. Hopefully I will see you there. Thanks :site:

 

[jstolaruk]

They've been shopping some work in this area. Delivery dates they wanted were, for the most part, expedited so we passed.

 

[CapinWinky]

I know some people that are involved with the big battery plant, but it hasn't progressed to much on site work yet. The location is BFE the desert about half an our east of Reno. The pics they showed me made it look like the damn moon, but I guess Reno isn't too far away and isn't the worst place on Earth.

I have no idea about the car production, but it makes sense that they would be looking to automate more things to ramp up production.

 

[Helliana]

Our plant made a very small amount of wire for them a few years back. Too bad they won't give me a car to test it!

 

[JERA]

Take a look here:

Part 1
https://youtu.be/8_lfxPI5ObM

Part 2
https://youtu.be/TEReFPI4jSc

 

[Lancie1]

The location is BFE the desert about half an our east of Reno. The pics they showed me made it look like the damn moon,...

The central part of Nevada does a very good imitation of the moon, with sand substituted for some rocks. In the summer it is dry and hot, with frequent dust storms that make it difficult to breathe. If you like water sports, this is not the place.

 

[Ken Roach]

One old colleague of mine from Rockwell is working at the Fremont plant, after heading up instrumentation at Gallo for a few years. I hear he's neck-deep in Kuka robots now, though we haven't talked since he went to work at Tesla Motors.


I see at least one Model S every day around here. The other day the first three cars at a stoplight were a Model S, a Nissan Leaf, and my Focus Electric. It was pretty cool to hear the traffic start moving from the light in total silence.

 

[dmargineau]

I think Mr. Musk, yet again, picked the wrong horse...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/09/17/toyota-2015-fcv-hydrogen-powered-car/15744945/

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/03/15/toyota-mirai-test-drive-hydrogen-fuel-cell.aspx

 

[Ken Roach]

In my humble opinion, the three automakers pushing hydrogen fuel cells are betting big on government subsidies and ultra-low sales volume that will allow them to appear to be environmentally oriented while selling millions of gasoline cars. The worldwide capacity for fueling hydrogen cars with solar-separated H2 gas is roughly four per day: two in Tokyo, two in LA. It's not a lot bigger for natural-gas derived H2; eighteen total H2 stations in North America, located in three cities. You literally cannot drive more than 150 miles from home without turning around, at any price, in an H2 car.

With perfectly straight faces, Toyota actually asked the Japanese government for a subsidy of $60,000 USD on each Mirai. They ended up with a nearly $20,000 subsidy.

What matters to me is what can be done right now, not in ten or twenty years, if everybody plays along and subsidizes Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai's production.

You can buy a Tesla or a Nissan or a BMW or a Ford electric vehicle today that plugs into electric service available in hundreds of millions of locations in the USA.

Tesla, without any Government partnerships for the charging network (and they paid off their DOE loan, remember) will double the numbers of Superchargers just in the next year. And you won't find a Tesla charging station sponsored by Chevron.

You can tell I'm enthusiastic on the topic. In fact, I gotta step next door and grab my car.... it just texted to let me know it's charged up.

 

[Bering C Sparky]

I was posting some funnies on Casual Talk when I came accross this and thought it might be fitting for this thread.

​

 

[dmroeder]

I was posting some funnies on Casual Talk when I came accross this and thought it might be fitting for this thread.

St00pid millionaire, somehow finds humor in the fact that he has to spend a million+ bucks to get s3x.

 

[Ken Roach]

Debates about electric powertrains and exotic cars nothwithstanding, everything I've read and seen says that they've got a really well designed and well built production line in Fremont. They do a little more curb appeal for the factory to appeal to investors, with the white paint and red machinery, but it's all pretty conventional stamping presses and weld cells and assembly robots. Probably more assembly robots than a comparable line in Ohio or Michigan.

 

[jstolaruk]

Actually I thought a little less. 160 for the whole plant, I've seen that many in just the body shop. But that's for a higher throughput too. New FCA van line I'm working on is 55 secs per vehicle.

 

[OkiePC]

CNG. US$1.49/gge.

We have a hundred years supply just in Tejas.

Toss a little CNG powered generator on a trailer and tow it behind your S-Class. Or buy a Volt with one under the turtle shell.

I think the electric vehicle is the future. The e-juice will be from CNG and good old fashioned fracked crude. The hydrogen fuel cell is a great long term endeavor too.

I also have high hopes for cellulosic ethanol for the not so long term (20 years from now).

 

[StoneNewB]

Okay, so no one is currently there it sounds like.