I just got the following email from Tesla. I like the comment about the new 1.5 powertrain being "extraordinary"... << removed >>
TEG, that information would give away TR1's identity to TM. I could be wrong, but I get the impression that he/she used a pseudonym to avoid doing that...
Come to think of it, I don't think that it was appropriate for me to post Tesla's email verbatim in this forum so I removed it. If it makes its way to Tesla's official web site, I'll post a link to it. Basically, they're saying how production is picking up and that they should be producing over 100 cars per month by December. Also, the development of the new powertrain is going well and performance is "extraordinary". And no, I'm not one of the "Signature 100", I wish. I got on the 2009 waiting list earlier this year.
This is super cool news. "in addition to sales and service it is the place where all final assembly, tests and preparations are made with each car prior to customers’ delivery. We are pushing forward with planning for our next stores in New York, Chicago, Miami and Seattle." First of all, the idea of having your car assembled where you buy it is so awesome. It really, truely fits the image Musk gives us in the company blog (Tesla Motors - feel) where he compares watching a technician service your car to a watching a chef rpepare your food at a restaurant. I wonder if all the Tesla Stores will have final assembly of the Roadster on-site, at the store. This would be a great idea. At a production rate of ~three cars a day, it may be feasible. I assume final assembly means installing the battery pack. This be a really good idea because that would make the Roadster almost 1,000 pounds lighter during shipping, which I'm assuming saves lots of money for them. "...they [Roadsters] will keep arriving at the rate of 4 per week (except for the scheduled factory shut down in the last two weeks of August)....In large measure we deliberately limit the production until we install our own born and bred final transmission by mid-September" I hope it's really, really true when they say the main reason for such slow production is that they're just waiting for Powertrain 1.5. I find it interesting that they are shutting down the factory in late August, and beginning to install Powertrain 1.5 in mid-September. Maybe the two have something to do with eachother? Or maybe Lotus is shutting down the factory? I would find that strange, unless the Roadster is built on the exact same assembly line as the Elise, which I doubt because the two cars are so different. Someone correct if I'm wrong though.
Oops...sorry R1. I already wrote a post, quoting some parts of the email, just before you removed it! I don't really think it's bad though, I mean, they know all the info. will leak out anyway.
Apparently an August holiday is SOP at the Lotus factory. Lotus Factory closed in August? - LotusTalk - The Lotus Cars Community
Well there was no request in the email that the information not be shared so I will post my copy. I certainly have forwarded the email to enough folks already that I am sure it will get out somehow.
Heck, it is standard for basically ALL of Europe. Almost all business (except some tourism) shuts down for parts of August. Nothing newsworthy there in the least... -Jon
Actually, that is true. Roadsters and Elises are build on the exact same assembly line. I don't have a link handy but it was stated so by some TM stuff. Lotus can make 2 Elises, 1 Roadster, 3 Elises, 2 Roadsters, etc coming down from the line one after another. Assembly is highly manual work though.
While it is true that much of mainland Europe tends to shut down for a simultaneous summer holiday/vacation, this is not really true of the UK. If Lotus do it, they are an exception. Also don't forget the Roadsters body panels are made in France.
Whereas it used to only mean the battery pack, I believe final assembly now means installation of the entire powertrain. That means battery, motor, transmission, probably also the PEM. That's an interesting idea. Certainly every service center should have the technical expertise to do that, since they may someday need to repair/replace a part of the drivetrain. The Menlo Park shop makes a lot of sense, though. It's pretty big, has lots of service bays (used to be a Chevy dealership) and is only a 15 minute drive down El Camino from their San Carlos HQ. Also, probably after initial installation there's some testing and verification they do that they'd want to keep consistent for the time being. When production is in full swing, and gliders start coming in by boat across the Atlantic, it may make more since to have the drivetrain installed on the east coast for non-California customers.
As a useless piece of information I might add that the common summer vacation is true as well in Norway though then it's the 3 last weeks of july. But generally everything is slow during the entire summer in Norway as you've got mandatory 4 weeks of vacation and 3 weeks of those has to be done simultaneously during summer. Cobos
It is really labor intensive. I've posted this video elsewhere but I think it's relevant here also. The video shows the Elise assembly. Much of the Roadster assembly is similar. Kimbal Musk posted some pictures of his car (P5) during glider assembly on his blog. If you pay attention, you can see this very same room in the video.
Tesla Motors - think Tesla starts delivering Roadsters as production ramps up, hires hotshot engineering exec - Engadget Ze'ev Drori offers up another Tesla production update - AutoblogGreen