Tesla is building new drive unit production lines at the Gigafactory

[dgindio]

Tesla is building new ‘drive unit production lines’ at the Gigafactory, will not only manufacture battery packs | Electrek

This article appeared in Electrek.
The Tesla Gigafactory is key to the automaker's planned production ramp up to 500,000 cars per year by 2018. It is expected to both significantly reduce the cost of Tesla's battery packs, which will enable Tesla to reach the $35,000 price point

 

[calisnow]

...

 

[Sparky22]

Make sense to me, anything to speedup the process.

 

[Twiglett]

My flight of fancy says - who is to say that the battery pack doesn't also include the drive unit?
Model S has a "quick change" battery, but does the Model ☰ need that?
It could almost be like the engine/transmission unit in an ICE.
Would also really speed the installation process if both drive units and battery went in together.

 

[Garlan Garner]

My flight of fancy says - who is to say that the battery pack doesn't also include the drive unit?
Model S has a "quick change" battery, but does the Model ☰ need that?
It could almost be like the engine/transmission unit in an ICE.
Would also really speed the installation process if both drive units and battery went in together.

I wouldn't mind having a lego Tesla.

I could swap out parts myself.

 

[Twiglett]

what if the intent is for a "traction pack" to leave the gigafactory as a battery pack and drive units as a single unit.

 

[timk225]

If people are referring to the battery pack and drive unit being attached to each other and leaving the gigafactory that way, I don't think so. In the Model S, the battery is bolted to the frame separately, and so is the drive unit. Given their locations with a couple feet between them, I don't think there's any practical way to connect them.

 

[ecarfan]

We know that one of Elon's goals with the Model 3 is to design it to be easier and cheaper to manufacturer. It seems possible that the 3 design is such that the entire drivertrain could be assembled at the Gigafactory as a single unit and then shipped to Fremont for installation into the chassis.

I say "possible". I am only guessing.

 

[Twiglett]

We know that one of Elon's goals with the Model 3 is to design it to be easier and cheaper to manufacturer. It seems possible that the 3 design is such that the entire drivertrain could be assembled at the Gigafactory as a single unit and then shipped to Fremont for installation into the chassis.

I say "possible". I am only guessing.

That's where I was going with that thought.
Why build battery and drive units in one place and ship them both to CA.
Just because the Model S isn't like that doesn't mean the ☰ can't

The other point about the Model S design was that the pack would be quickly replaceable in the battery swap stations. But that seemed to solve a problem that nobody had.
Without that requirement, the all-in-one may work - it seems to work for most FWD ICE cars where the production line installs the engine/transmission/suspension as a single unit.

 

[Garlan Garner]

We know that one of Elon's goals with the Model 3 is to design it to be easier and cheaper to manufacturer. It seems possible that the 3 design is such that the entire drivertrain could be assembled at the Gigafactory as a single unit and then shipped to Fremont for installation into the chassis.

I say "possible". I am only guessing.

That's indeed possible. I can see that effort making the production process much simpler.

 

[JeffK]

Nice! Hopefully that means lower cost performance motors

 

[Garlan Garner]

Well, As we all know - all you have to do to a robot is feed it electrons and stuff like that and it will keep working without complaining about anything. How simple.

 

[RDoc]

Cell phones have gone to built in batteries, so why not cars?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Ever since the GF tour, I was thinking that Tesla was secretly building an entire M3 production line out there. **

Just like the Japanese did with the duplicate "machine" they built in the movie "Contact".




** Yes, I'm aware that they just submitted plans to greatly expand the Fremont factory.

 

[Watts 4 Me]

Didn't Elon say they planned on building the model 3 at the GF? I believe he said it after the GF tour.

 

[aronth5]

Didn't Elon say they planned on building the model 3 at the GF? I believe he said it after the GF tour.

No he never said that.
What you may be referring too is when he said he expected the next gigafactory would have raw battery material enter on one end and a finished car would come out the other end.

 

[ecarfan]

Didn't Elon say they planned on building the model 3 at the GF? I believe he said it after the GF tour.

No he did not say that.

 

[brucet999]

My flight of fancy says - who is to say that the battery pack doesn't also include the drive unit?
Model S has a "quick change" battery, but does the Model ☰ need that?
It could almost be like the engine/transmission unit in an ICE.
Would also really speed the installation process if both drive units and battery went in together.

Two good reasons NOT to have DU integral with battery;
1. DU has to withstand considerable torque forces, so it needs a very strong attachment to the car's frame. If attached to the battery pack, the pack would have to be massively re-inforced to withstand that force.

2. What do you do when a DU needs replacing, remove the battery pack too?

 

[Twiglett]

Two good reasons NOT to have DU integral with battery;
1. DU has to withstand considerable torque forces, so it needs a very strong attachment to the car's frame. If attached to the battery pack, the pack would have to be massively re-inforced to withstand that force.

2. What do you do when a DU needs replacing, remove the battery pack too?

1. I was under the impression that the skateboard was already reinforced and vital part of the body structure. They certainly mention it as contributing a great deal to the crash protection, so I'm making the assumption that its already part of the frame.
2. Just because they build the pack/drive into one unit doesn't mean that they can't replace a drive unit.

 

[JeffK]

1. I was under the impression that the skateboard was already reinforced and vital part of the body structure. They certainly mention it as contributing a great deal to the crash protection, so I'm making the assumption that its already part of the frame.
2. Just because they build the pack/drive into one unit doesn't mean that they can't replace a drive unit.

The gigafactory simply gives Tesla space for robotics and the ability to experiment with varying production line setups to get the best efficiency while giving them more space for Model 3 production in Fremont. This has nothing to do with directly attaching a motor to the battery which would be a safety nightmare. As you can see from the pic they are separately attached to the frame.