Good/Bad Days to Tour Factory

[Jken3]

This may be a difficult question to answer, since most people only visit the factory once, but are there better or worse days of the week (in terms of seeing the car actually being made) to tour the Tesla factory?

 

[Owner]

I can't answer your question about the hours the cars are being made.

But I was told weekdays are a lot less popular than weekends, so your group will be smaller. So easier to see and ask more questions of your guide.

 

[tdiggity]

I took a monday 4pm tour. In the beginning, it was pretty empty because a shift change just happened at about 4pm. It takes about 30 minutes for the new shift to come online. Towards the end of the tour, after everyone got settled in, there was a lot of people moving around and doing things. I'd definitely try for a 3pm or earlier weekday tour.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I had an early Friday ~2 pm tour(late Jan) and a Saturday ~5 pm tour (Dec 1st during pickup)

there was more going on during the Friday tour. and lots of times we were kind of in the way of stuff. During the second tour we didn't walk through the press loop. we just went passed the one side of it

 

[Banahogg]

The 1pm tour that I took was just at the end of lunch, so the line was pretty quiet until the end of the tour. I wonder if they intentionally schedule the tours for quiet times at the factory?

 

[wraithnot]

This may be a difficult question to answer, since most people only visit the factory once, but are there better or worse days of the week (in terms of seeing the car actually being made) to tour the Tesla factory?

I got a tour last Saturday around noon. The assembly line itself didn't appear to be running, but there were still quite a few people running around doing things and all sorts of recognizable parts were stacked all over the place. There were people making the leather seats and cars were being tested on the test track dyno. But the most impressive part was the HUGE aluminum stamping machine. That was running and it sounded like a train crash every time it slammed down. The robots feeding aluminum sheets into the press were also pretty cool to watch. We also had an Elon sighting- he was walking to his desk and turned around just enough to tell it was him. And even without the full assembly line running, we were still in the way a bit. A large fork lift came pretty close to ramming the tour tram.

Anyway, even on a Saturday without the full assembly line running, it was still a fantastic tour. And I don't regret not getting a weekday tour with more things going on. In fact, my only regret is not being able to afford the performance model. But I still count myself incredibly lucky to be able to afford the standard 85 kWh Model S with all the other options I really wanted. And after taking it on my daily grind commute for a few days, I'm pretty sure this is the best commuting car ever built!

 

[Jken3]

Thanks all for the info. I've got an 11am next Wednesday pick up date. I can't wait!

Solar City is at the house right now installing chargers (for Tesla and Volt).

 

[scriptacus]

Took a tour on a Sunday at 9am. As far as I'm concerned this was a great time; we were the only group (3 of us + 2 tour guides) and the tour ended up lasting a full hour and a half. A decent chunk of the machinery was running including some stamping, laser cutting and the main assembly/welding.