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Report: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas:
Elon Musk's recent clashes with officials in Alameda County, home of Tesla's Fremont factory, may have given him a heightened sense of urgency to find Tesla's next US factory. On Friday, several news outlets reported that Tesla was narrowing in on a new location to build the Model Y crossover and Tesla's forthcoming Cybertruck.
The reports started with Electrek, a pro-Tesla site whose co-founder Fred Lambert has good connections inside the company. Just before 3pm Eastern time, Lambert reported that Tesla had settled on Austin, Texas as the site of its next factory.
"We are told that the decision for the site is not set in stone since Tesla was apparently given a few options in the greater Austin area," Lambert wrote. "But Musk is said to want to start construction extremely soon and aims to have Model Y vehicles coming out of the plant by the end of the year."
That would be a remarkably short amount of time for any car company to build a new factory from scratch. Last year, it took Tesla almost a year to build its Shanghai factory—and that was considered unusually fast.
[...] Hours after Electrek's story ran, three news organizations—TechCrunch, CNBC, and the Associated Press—all published stories stating that Tesla was still considering Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"A final decision has not been made, but Austin and Tulsa are among the finalists," Techcrunch's Kirsten Korosec writes, citing "multiple sources."
[...] Both Texas and Oklahoma have right-to-work laws that allow employees to opt out of paying union dues. These laws could help Tesla discourage workers in its new factory from forming a union. California's laws are more friendly to union organizing.
Elon Musk SpaceX already has two locations in Texas: The Boca Chica site is rapidly ramping up development of Starship and the McGregor location has their rocket testing facility.
Recently:
(2020-05-14) Elon Musk's Boring Company Finishes Digging Las Vegas Tunnels
(2020-05-12) Musk Dares County Officials to Arrest Him as He Reopens Fremont Factory
(2020-05-02) Elon Musk Tweet Wipes $14bn Off Tesla's Value
(2020-04-15) Tesla's Robotaxi Fleet Will be 'Functionally Ready' in 2020, Musk Says
(2020-04-04) Tesla Beats Expectations with Strong First-Quarter Delivery Numbers
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday May 18 2020, @06:40PM (8 children)
That seems just a tad bit unrealistical to me.
They might be doing good just to have the factory built by the end of the year. (did Elon say which year?)
Equipment, machinery installed? Supply chains
upsetset up? Qualified people hired and trained?It just doesn't seem possible.
Due to popular demand.
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(Score: 2) by Username on Monday May 18 2020, @07:12PM (4 children)
I dont think it will be entirely new. Probably start with an existing building and just ship the current fab from CA to TX. Then just expand the warehouse and ramp up.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday May 18 2020, @11:09PM (3 children)
Do you know of a vacant building near Austin large enough to handle auto production? The reason they moved into Fremont was there was a huge auto fabrication plant existing there. Wasn't that hard to retool and start production in Alameda County. Plus there was a core of trained workers there. Wonder if he knows what he'll be getting into in Travis County. They may not be as easy a pushover as he might think.
A couple of days ago Musk was supposedly thinking of Nevada and maybe Austin. Could be he's he's just slinging shit around and looking for some wall for it to stick to.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by Username on Tuesday May 19 2020, @12:04AM (1 child)
No, I don't. I don't live in Texas. I don't believe they need a very large building just for one assembly line to start production. Especially if it's just to make a political point. They make firetrucks a few miles from me, the place is smaller than the foundry next to it, and most of the paper mills.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:11AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Factory [wikipedia.org]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:37PM
and why move to Austin if you don't want blue hairs ruining your life? it's the California of TX, ffs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @01:10AM
One way it could work by the end of this year is the way I understand Intel often builds a new fab. Basically don't invent anything, clone what is working *exactly* (or as near as possible).
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @02:19AM
It is probably a bit unrealistic but totally doable. Where I live there were hundreds of factories churning out cloths. Those no longer exist. The empty husks of buildings are there. The people and *large* machinery is long gone. They took the machinery and packed it up and moved it to Mexico years ago. Moving a factory is hard. But if you are already shutdown what does it mater if you move a non running factory somewhere else to get it running again?
As a businessman I would be looking to do something similar to what he is doing. Basically he sees currently the California government as a risk to running his business. He is diversifying it. He can also use the two states against each other in a bidding war for tax breaks and concessions. Look for him to announce more states soon (within 3 years).
Your very reason for him not moving it is a very good reason for him to split the company into smaller pieces AND move. The risk of the gov screwing up his business is large there. He found out first hand. Cali is no longer a stable place to make a new large business. The Californians just have not figured it out yet. Musk did.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @10:04PM
What about it doesn't seem possible? Much of this stuff has already been done.