Fremont Factory Test Track

[Owner]

FREMONT -- Tesla Motors (TSLA) has gobbled up a 35-acre site in Fremont near its automotive factory, apparently to build a test track for its all-electric automobiles.

Tesla buys land for test track in Fremont - San Jose Mercury News


Maybe they will open it up at times for owners?:biggrin:

 

[bonnie]

As discussed over in the investment thread, they've been leasing this track - this gives them one more area of control. I don't expect it to change anything.

(Moving this post out of Model S, and into Tesla Motors. The test track is not specifically for Model S.)

 

[Owner]

As discussed over in the investment thread, they've been leasing this track - this gives them one more area of control. I don't expect it to change anything.

(Moving this post out of Model S, and into Tesla Motors. The test track is not specifically for Model S.)

I didn't know that they were leasing this track before, darn.

I am not an investor and can't follow super long threads....

 

[bonnie]

We've tried getting on the track for some other events & were told 'not possible' for insurance reasons.

 

[vfx]

I plan to resurrect that idea now.

 

[lloyds]

If Elon allows it, we will come!

 

[BenTesla]

I plan to resurrect that idea now.

Saying that you can't drive on the track for insurance reasons? Are you thinking that now that they own the track they'll have more coverage if one of you guys hurt yourselves (or eachother)? I would think they'd have to buy more coverage to cover any sort of non-employee drivers on the track.

 

[markb1]

They could always pass the cost of insurance onto the people who want to use the track. Seems fair to me.

 

[BenTesla]

They could always pass the cost of insurance onto the people who want to use the track. Seems fair to me.

Ok that makes sense. I don't know what I was thinking. Should have thought of that!

How much do you think they would have to charge?

 

[JPP]

When I was down at the Fremont SC today (...yes, Saturday) to pick up my car, I chatted with one of the very senior (...and knowledgable) techs. He said that when GM-Toyota built the NUMMI plant, they created a test track next door on land partially owned by NUMMI and partially by the Union Pacific Railroad. He said that NUMMI-GM never had to pay for the use of the UP part of the land since UP got lots of freight business to/from the plant. Tesla wanted to consolidate the site and preserve the existing test track. Not sure where the local paper (see URL) got the idea that they needed to build a new track.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23694920/tesla-buys-land-test-track-fremont

 

[vfx]

There are two threads on this.

 

[AEdennis]

I figured you folks would've talked about this already...

However, now that Porsche is advertising the "plug-in" Panamera and are actively building the http://press.porsche.com/news/release.php?id=683.

Perhaps it's time to open that track up for folks.

It will be too late for me as I would have picked up our Model S by then, but it would allow Tesla to continue to get a leg up on Porsche, the other "green" performance vehicle (yes, I am typing that in a mocking tone.)

 

[neroden]

FREMONT -- Tesla Motors (TSLA) has gobbled up a 35-acre site in Fremont near its automotive factory, apparently to build a test track for its all-electric automobiles.

Tesla buys land for test track in Fremont - San Jose Mercury News

What does this imply to me? To me, it means that Tesla thinks they're going to need to reclaim the space currently occupied by the indoor test track, for factory expansion.

- - - Updated - - -

Of note, the property ownership maps I've seen (from various development plans from the Fremont government and BART) seem to imply that Tesla doesn't own the railroad sidings for loading cars onto trains. Tesla should probably buy those too -- Tesla is going to want to start delivering its cars by rail sooner or later. Actually, Tesla is already shipping enough cars that it would make sense to move them by rail from Fremont to a Chicago-area distribution center.