Being retired from the water and wastewater business, it looks even less like a pump station than an electrical substation. Keep the guesses coming though. Eventually we'll figure it out.
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Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable
- Thread starter AudubonB
- Start date
Being retired from the water and wastewater business, it looks even less like a pump station than an electrical substation. Keep the guesses coming though. Eventually we'll figure it out.
SW2Fiddler
We Are Cognitive Dissidents
There you go. Except Mark Spiegel will be first in line to sign up to advise callers.
(And #6 in line, and #21-24, and so on)
Fact Checking
Well-Known Member
Could it be a power substation with a large emergency generator, to keep the factory powered during hurricanes and flood? It would be natural gas powered, hence the distance to the main building.
Individual pump stations could thus be electric and would be distributed along the flood defense perimeter. The pumps are needed because levees are not enough: ground water would press in from below during prolonged river flood events.
Cheaper, simpler and faster than elevating this huge factory area.
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RFernatt
Solar/EV Owner/Enthusiast
It's placed a decent distance away from the main facility, so it's probably something with some risk. Electrical substation could be it, but others think not. I wouldn't think water treatment would require that kind of distance and extra cost. What about some type of natural gas compressor station?
Edit: I like FCs substation with generators idea. That would require onsite fuel storage, so keeping it back from the facility makes sense.
Or, a detention facility for saboteurs and trespassing shorts guarded by AI drones with flamethrowers?
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Never would have assumed to get any reply from a CEOs about my modest thoughts and comments but here it is after Elon commented now more than one time I received today a tweet from the Audi CEO Bram Schot.
Good to see his apology and it sounds to me they understand that they messed up.
Bram Schot @BSchotOfficial
Replying to @alex_avoigt
We are sorry about that
Bram Schot on Twitter
Good to see his apology and it sounds to me they understand that they messed up.
- jay @jboondich
Replying to @GerberKawasaki
You can lease three model 3 for the price of one Audi etron.
Alex Retweeted
Audi, we have a problem.
Bram Schot @BSchotOfficialReplying to @alex_avoigt
We are sorry about that
Bram Schot on Twitter
I am not contradicting you; I have been puzzling over this and offer these naive possibilities. Eager to hear corrections.
KarenRei recently stated that the deal is good for both sides. I completely agree. Both sides are too sophisticated for any other conclusion.
So what are a few of the things China gets? Many have been mentioned previously:
1. Faster ramp of their BEV effort to make their cities more liveable. Tesla also brings longer range batteries, better battery thermal management, better cell chemistry, etc.
2. Enhanced IP trickle down effect. Even without industrial espionage-type IP theft, the same departures of engineers and executives seen from Tesla USA will occur in China, bringing their sought-after experience and insight from Tesla to other BEV manufacturers. This strengthens the entire Chinese BEV effort.
3. Status. China has earned acclaim over decades for its ever-improving construction capability. There is no better stage (than the internationally headlining Tesla/Musk juggernaut) on which to showcase China’s state of the art speed of construction.
4. Economic stimulation from FSD. China needs its large and densely populated cities to function as efficiently as possible. The efficiency of movement of goods and people has an outsized (leveraged) effect in China by virtue of its enormous industrial and population base. Squeezing even a small percentage of added efficiency from the transportation and logistics sectors has an enormous financial impact when applied over such a large base.
5. etc
What is in it for Tesla?
1. Stability. The strong support of the Chinese government almost assures production and sales success in the fastest timeframe possible anywhere on earth. This is critical because Tesla has all of its vertically integrated eggs in one geographic basket, making it vulnerable to catastrophe of myriad types, from seismic to sabotage to a USA recession which might be asynchronous with an Asian recession.
2. Mission opportunity - speeding the transition to sustainable energy. The most populous country, which wants to reduce its polluting coal energy base and its dependency on foreign oil will therefore offer far less systemic resistance to change than the entrenched oil interests in the USA, is a big bang for the buck ecologically.
3. Tesla begins the exponential growth of its supply base by setting up shop in the world’s industrial powerhouse. Whether external, via the growth of external suppliers, or via internal production, China offers unparalleled opportunities, including raw materials and less expensive labor.
4. Economies of scale regarding the “machine that builds the machine.” Getting more of the former up and running ASAP brings experience and efficiencies in establishing additional gigafactories in Europe and elsewhere. For example, GF-3 helps pay for Grohmann to continue producing and innovating.
5. etc
What might be in the PRC-Tesla contract to safeguard these respective interests? Financing mutuality: China provides low-interest and zero-interest loans for manufacturing and for consumer purchase, respectively. This gets GF-3 producing at scale with minimal capex and with an almost guaranteed consumer base. In turn, I wonder if Tesla has agreed to reinvest a large percentage of its revenue/profits in China, via additional gigafactories, including battery production. Perhaps Tesla only draws against its China capital via limited sales of exported vehicles, except in the case of catastrophe at Fremont/GF-1.
As far as IP theft, I suspect that the critical ‘latest and greatest’ from Grohmann goes to Tesla USA, not to GF-3 (not all new manufacturing capability would go to USA first, only that which protects the most critical IP). For example, perhaps the lower-producing battery cell lines from Pana GF-1 move to GF-3 while the slower GF-1 lines are replaced by the recently-added, higher-yield cell lines. Similarly I would expect the Maxwell tech to debut in the USA, moving to GF-3 once the bugs have been worked out and Tesla has the next battery advance in its sights. China would remain 1/2 step behind on only the most critical IP. This not only provides some IP protection, it also minimizes capex (by repurposing some USA machines) at this critical time when Tesla is relatively FCF constrained.
The reality is undoubtedly different and undoubtedly more complex. Just a stab to hopefully stimulate additional layers of communication on the thread.
Fact Checking
Well-Known Member
China's largest strategic vulnerability is its dependence on crude oil imports:
China is the world's largest crude oil importer, and their domestic sources of oil are not particularly big:Note those oil basins in the South China Sea - China was ready to go to war to claim and own those oil fields, and they own them now, despite them being in international waters.
China's main sources of oil are countries that are both strategic opponents and also not particularly stable geopolitically:
Saudi Arabia, Angola, Russia, Oman, Iraq, Iran and Venezuela make up ~70% of their imports - highly unstable and unreliable partners.
China's dependence on crude oil is both a serious economic and a military vulnerability of China - oil embargo or just a serious shortage or interruption of the supply of oil from any of these regions would hit China hard, really hard - with almost immediate negative internal consequences that monetary policy cannot fix. If there's one thing money does not help with it's resource shortages - so it would be a socially destabilizing event.
I believe this is the main reason Tesla got a sweet deal: China saw a way to remove their dependence on crude oil, and they jumped on it. Cleaner air, being a bigger automotive sector player and moving up on the industrial food chain globally are icing on the cake.
Attachments
I wish Tesla could add a couple of colors, maybe an annual rotating color, and maybe the red interior Elon mentioned to add some differentiation. Yes I'm aware the paint shop has been a challenge.
DFibRL8R
Active Member
That’s great! I try to avoid those rides at the amusement park since the fumes are pretty bad. I have enjoyed my local indoor electric go-cart track for the same reason.
Indoor Electric Go-Kart Racing & Events | Autobahn Indoor Speedway
Electric drive is so much better from Semi to weed-wacker!
Maybe if they update Mission Space to use the Spaceship entry and landing profile they can make the ride exciting without using questionable physics (winged landing on Mars) and engineering (why would your runway be near the edge of a cliff for you to possibly fall off?). At least I remember there being some ridiculous ending like that, maybe it was something else, but I remember being like "WHAT IDIOT THOUGHT THIS UP". The ride was fun (I would happily have gone back repeatedly if not for the wait and my wife not being a fan over the centrifuge), but the story they felt like they needed to tell to make it "exciting" was so dumb.
Of course since a SH/SS flight would be all computer controlled (like any real launch, entry, etc) there's be no more fighting G forces to press a button (which only slightly changes the narrative at best since things will happen automatically if you don't).
Still, I think some epic views of the Earth, space, and then Mars in "zero G" would more than make up for the "interactive" nature being lost during the high-G sections.
I worry that that's troublesome to anybody writing up a reply to my post, that I just delete it before they post a reply.
Etna
Member
Never would have assumed to get any reply from a CEOs about my modest thoughts and comments but here it is after Elon commented now more than one time I received today a tweet from the Audi CEO Bram Schot.
Good to see his apology and it sounds to me they understand that they messed up.
- jay @jboondich
Replying to @GerberKawasaki
You can lease three model 3 for the price of one Audi etron.
Alex Retweeted
Audi, we have a problem.
Replying to @alex_avoigt
We are sorry about that
Bram Schot on Twitter
I very much doubt this is a legit account. It is not a Twitter verified account, joined July 2019, just 46 followers and a bunch of posts that sound like some teenager would write.
HVDC converter station maybe?
Whatever it is, there must be some serious physical loads on it - that's a crazy amount of rebar.
RFernatt
Solar/EV Owner/Enthusiast
I bet Australian steer farmers don't get to have posts like all these in their investors forums, right guys?
I was gonna put "OT", but then I figured... what's the point. Also, somebody is raising bugs for cattle feed protein.
Mars ☰mperor
Member
Nice thread, worth reading.
T☰SLA Mania on Twitter
These 3 German companies @Audi @BMW @MercedesBenz have a combined history of more than 300 years (109+103+93 = 305). @tesla was only founded 16 years ago. Yet the Tesla Model 3 put them to COMPLETE SHAME in this roller test, without breaking a sweat. Simply graceful.@elonmusk /1
Just look at the way the Model 3 beat the best the Germans can offer. The Germans each come with a fancy marketing name: QUATTRO, 4MATIC, xDrive. But it turns out they are pure marketing gimmicks in comparison with Tesla’s plain simple naming: AWD for All-Wheel-Drive. /2
T☰SLA Mania on Twitter
These 3 German companies @Audi @BMW @MercedesBenz have a combined history of more than 300 years (109+103+93 = 305). @tesla was only founded 16 years ago. Yet the Tesla Model 3 put them to COMPLETE SHAME in this roller test, without breaking a sweat. Simply graceful.@elonmusk /1
Just look at the way the Model 3 beat the best the Germans can offer. The Germans each come with a fancy marketing name: QUATTRO, 4MATIC, xDrive. But it turns out they are pure marketing gimmicks in comparison with Tesla’s plain simple naming: AWD for All-Wheel-Drive. /2
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