smac
Active Member
When I did my Tesla factory tour last May, we saw completed EU cars that underwent all the final tests. Then the cars went to a spur line where the battery (and possibly some other stuff) was removed. At that time, they said that they put two cars per shipping container for any destination not in the Continental USA. They had shipping queues for Tilburg, Drammen and Honolulu. Asian orders had not commenced shipping yet.
Thanks interesting! (I wonder if you saw my car going down the line? slim chance I know, i only mention it because mine is a May'14 build! )
So it seems cars come in as containerized rolling chassis, on container ships rather than specialized bulk vehicle transports, which answers my logistics questions.
Here are some photos of what happens the other end.
Tesla Motors in The Netherlands - 32 photos - GTspirit
You can clearly see the motor is in a separate crate, and there are battery shipping boxes too. One photo clearly shows a car coming out of a container through loading bay doors (probably staged for photographic effect if the cars can't drive at this point). You can also see a specialized car moving equipment.
All very interesting!
This all just seems so pointless and inefficient to assemble -> disassemble -> reassemble cars ! (especially when shipping them in containers is more expensive than in bulk vehicle ships)
But this isn't the place to start a debate on the moralities of gaming international taxation loopholes