Audacious growth plans will stretch Tesla beyond its comfort zone - Automotive News

[sjoshuaj]

Place it just east of Blythe, California on the other side of the Arizona border. It's 3.5 hours from LA and 2 hours from Avondale or Glendale if they should ever build another car factory.

 

[jerry33]

Tesla plans at least one more US factory in the foreseeable future. Maybe Texas would be halfway between new plant and Freemont?

Wouldn't that make both plants inefficient? Perhaps the second plant will be in Texas, that would make more sense. If not then Western Arizona or Southern Nevada.

 

[RobStark]

Wouldn't that make both plants inefficient? Perhaps the second plant will be in Texas, that would make more sense. If not then Western Arizona or Southern Nevada.

I don't think so if you include shipping the vehicles to customers.

If Tesla plans to refurbish an old factory I guess something in the Northeast makes sense since that is the second largest concentration of customers after the West Coast but if building from scratch maybe something near Mercedes Benz in Alabama or BMW in South Carolina makes more sense. Shipping to the East Coast, South America and Europe from South Carolina seems ideal plus low cost and manufacturing friendly laws.

 

[purplewalt]

About the Giga-factory in Texas statement: I don't think so. Elon is a practical guy and putting a factory thousands of miles away from where you are building the cars is ridiculous. Find the space near the factory so you have access to your product ASAP. There is plenty of empty factory spaces around. What the difference with moving a huge amount of product over thousands of miles of land versus moving it over an ocean. It would be wasteful and polluting and I can't see it being practical. Maybe Elon has mentioned Texas simply to pressure California into giving him a sweetheart deal.

Well, looking down the road a bit: a Giga-factory in Texas might be very compelling.
There has been speculation that Tesla will build a pick-up as a future model, and when that happens, one of the best pick-up markets is in Texas.
FWIW **Ford F-150 is the highest selling vehicle in the US**
Manufacturing both the batteries and pick-ups in Texas would then be a keen marriage.
Talk about immediate market penetration....

Also: shipping trucks to the East, North and West would be more convenient (and efficient) than shipping everything to the East (from Fremont).

Money Talks: If a business is willing to develop a full infrastructure here, no amount of NADA money will keep the tide from over-turning toward other arcane (Texas Dealership) laws.

 

[malcolm]

Huh?

Why would any automaker be content to work WITHIN its comfort zone? Odd.

Also - given the importance of word-of-mouth/internet info, would/should a few Model S owners please write EV-basics/FAQs for this site for any lurking noobs?

 

[Ampster]

Even if a ruling like this happens, it will still take a long time to get rid of the dealer model as the dealers all have contracts with the manufacturers.

Chrysler got rid of some dealers quickly.

 

[RobStark]

Chrysler got rid of some dealers quickly.

It had to go through bankruptcy to do it.

 

[castigador55]

This part of the article made me laugh:

QUOTE: "In interviews with Automotive News, top automotive executives dispassionately analyzed Tesla's enormous strategic and tactical hurdles. Speaking on condition of anonymity, because they were commenting as individuals and not as representatives of their companies, the executives pieced together what Tesla would have to do to succeed.
These executives don't wish to see Tesla fail. They respect and admire what Musk has done. But each expressed concern that the auto-maker's ambitions may overreach its abilities."
---------

So speaking anonymously, they spread fear, doubt, and uncertainty about a company that they are terrified will succeed and blow away their existing business model and put them out of work.

J, MAXWELL:
"When you want to start something, there will be many people who will tell you not to do, when they see that they can not stop you, will tell you how you have to do and when you finally see that you did it, they say they always believed in you"

Tesla proved to doubters that his business plan works ... Now the competition is in the second Phase : when they see that they can not stop you, they will tell you how you have to do ..

How many years left for the 3rd phase? :"they say they always believed in you"