Tesla Gigafactory Investor Thread

[dhanson865]

Won't be operational until 2020?

They just missed the word "fully". Earlier in the article they say:

The company will be using sources like solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric plants in order to power 500,000 electric vehicles by 2020. Once the facility is finalized, it will take up around 5 million square feet of space

It'll start producing well before then, just won't be completed and producing full capacity until much later.

 

[32no]

Tesla's gigafactory is coming together, thanks to satellite images

New satellite image. Hard to tell how this compares with other recent images. It seems the construction is much longer.

Based on that satellite image, I estimate that the section currently under construction (with beams laid out) is 420 feet wide by 2050 feet long, or a total of 861,000 square feet on one floor, which is 1,722,000 square feet on two floors. Kimbal Musk tweeted that it is 1.7 million square feet about a month and a half ago.

 

[jhm]

Based on that satellite image, I estimate that the section currently under construction (with beams laid out) is 420 feet wide by 2050 feet long, or a total of 861,000 square feet on one floor, which is 1,722,000 square feet on two floors. Kimbal Musk tweeted that it is 1.7 million square feet about a month and a half ago.

Super! And when we're counting both floors, we're looking at 10Msf total, right?

 

[Trev Page]

Tesla said the current pilot structure is only 20% of the total finished Gigafactory size 10m square feet is on two levels. I hear concrete flooring has started so close up should be soon after that. Start or machinery installation will happen later this year and into early next year. I can't remember where I saw documentation but I did see leaked PDF files showing first cell production was going to July of 2016. If I find them I'll post them.

 

[jhm]

Tesla said the current pilot structure is only 20% of the total finished Gigafactory size 10m square feet is on two levels. I hear concrete flooring has started so close up should be soon after that. Start or machinery installation will happen later this year and into early next year. I can't remember where I saw documentation but I did see leaked PDF files showing first cell production was going to July of 2016. If I find them I'll post them.

Sounds good. 17% is really close to 20%. Soon they'll be calling up the IBEW union hall to send out the electricians!

 

[Auzie]

Couple of interesting attachments, most likely not up to date but still reveal the thinking behind this project

From TM, Gigafactory

Slides show batteries recycling process feeding back into raw materials and production start in 2017

Agreement Panasonic, TM

One of my old posts that I can not locate had a better pdf attachment, outlining the agreement in more detail

 

[evp]

Here's a pic from this week. Looks to me like most of the structural steel is up. I didn't see much activity, but it was 7:30 in the evening. Most of the construction equipment that was parked there in this picture http://www.tweaktown.com/news/44649...g-together-thanks-satellite-images/index.html was gone.

 

[jhm]

Are the cranes gone?

 

[rtz]

I'm surprised whatever they are going to skin/wall the building with isn't on site.

Also it seems like for projects that big; they usually mix concrete on site?

 

[Krugerrand]

I'm going with: they like to keep the site spic and span. :smile:

 

[dhanson865]

I'm surprised whatever they are going to skin/wall the building with isn't on site.

Also it seems like for projects that big; they usually mix concrete on site?

apparently rust isn't a concern with all that uncovered framework.

 

[Foghat]

Couple of interesting attachments, most likely not up to date but still reveal the thinking behind this project

From TM, Gigafactory

Slides show batteries recycling process feeding back into raw materials and production start in 2017

Agreement Panasonic, TM

One of my old posts that I can not locate had a better pdf attachment, outlining the agreement in more detail

I think the recycling piece doesn't get enough attention. I feel it may be the next really revolutionary step in sustainable transport as well as dramatic cost reductions in vehicle production. JB straubel noted that none of the materials are expended once the pack has reached its useful life. It is just a matter of rearranging atoms in his estimation. Hence, the idea of recycling old batteries and creating new ones from the same materials. I imagine it will be a good twenty years or more before irecyclying in this wayis truly able to see scale, but how incredible would it be if tesla didn't require nearly any new raw materials mined from the earth anymore? They would just take old packs and reprocess them into new ones. Costs in many areas would plummet. So, much innovation coming its mind boggling to me.

 

[chickensevil]

apparently rust isn't a concern with all that uncovered framework.

Its the desert not like it rains much, haha

 

[ecarfan]

Steel will still rust/oxidize in the Reno climate, since there is always some moisture in the atmosphere, but the process will occur more slowly than in a more humid climate.

I'm sure the building designers and construction project managers have taken that into account.

 

[Benz]

Business Insider UK:

"Musk said that initially the Powerwall and Powerpack will be made in Tesla's Fremont factory, but as the product line scales, it will be made in the massive $5-billion Gigafactory that the company is building in Nevada.

And there will be many more Gigafactories, Musk said."

Did anyone actually hear Elon Musk say this?

I dis not watch the livestream of the battery-event last night.

Here comes Tesla's 'missing piece' battery announcement - Business Insider

 

[blakegallagher]

Yes he mentioned that the gigafactory and powerwall and powerpack would all be open patents as well. He envisions many different companies building them all.


I am not 100 percent positive The words you used were his exact words but he made it very clear there will be many.

 

[MikeC]

Business Insider UK:

"Musk said that initially the Powerwall and Powerpack will be made in Tesla's Fremont factory, but as the product line scales, it will be made in the massive $5-billion Gigafactory that the company is building in Nevada.

And there will be many more Gigafactories, Musk said."

Did anyone actually hear Elon Musk say this?

I dis not watch the livestream of the battery-event last night.

Here comes Tesla's 'missing piece' battery announcement - Business Insider

Yeah, he referred to Reno as "Gigafactory version 1" and went on to talk about the need for many gigafactories.

 

[DriverOne]

I didn't understand what Elon meant by thinking of the factory as a product, this is version 1. That makes it sound like they will be selling gigafactories? They can't be selling the design, that's open sourced he said. Can someone help me understand?

 

[Gerardf]

As I recall he stated GigaFactory 1, not version 1.

You can check here : Elon Musk Debuts the Tesla Powerwall - YouTube scroll to time 15.35.

Correction, at 16.20 he also states version 1 . However I have the impression he meant the first GF, not version.

 

[pr0teu5]

I didn't understand what Elon meant by thinking of the factory as a product, this is version 1. That makes it sound like they will be selling gigafactories? They can't be selling the design, that's open sourced he said. Can someone help me understand?

i think this quote is about how they're approaching the design of the factory, not the marketing of this. Rather than thinking of it as a traditional factory they're thinking about it as a giant machine made for the purpose of building factories. So when new versions of the gigafactory come out they should be radically improved in the same way that second generations of machinery are improved. In many cases when a sucessful factory is built new versions are simply carbon copies of the old one. This won't be the case with the gigafactories.