Lead
Introduction
An invisible smart electric war has begun.
Author 丨 Wang Xiaoxi
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Musk is improvising "awkward dance" again! The last time Musk "awkwardly danced" was when the first batch of electric vehicles were delivered to Chinese customers at the Shanghai Gigafactory.
On March 22, local time, Tesla Berlin Giga Berlin was officially launched, and Musk improvised a "awkward dance" against the drone at the delivery ceremony, looking super good.
The Shanghai neighbor of tesla factory is SAIC Volkswagen. The launching ceremony of the Berlin factory is equivalent to directly killing the "hinterland" of the public. Today, what The German Wolfburg needs to face is a real beautiful "wolf". So, what was Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, thinking at this time? How does the BBA respond to the "frontal attack" launched by the BBA?
At the very least, environmentalists protested, too much water consumption, battery wastewater treatment and other issues only slowed Down Tesla for nine months, and did not delay the start of Tesla's chariots.
The pattern of the European car market is about to change dramatically. In the German electric car sales list in February, Tesla has won the first and second places, and the Volkswagen ID. series is ranked low. With the official opening of the Berlin factory, an invisible smart electric war began.
Strength holds up ambition
According to Tesla's official release target, the annual production capacity of the Berlin factory is planned to be 500,000 vehicles, and it is expected to produce 5,000 to 10,000 Model Ys per week by the end of this year, which is equivalent to the Shanghai factory. The Berlin plant will initially produce in single shifts, with a second and third shift to be added in the coming months.
The strategic significance of the Berlin factory to Tesla is to sound the clarion call to occupy the European market. Behind Musk's "awkward dance" is the ambition to conquer the "heartland" of German automobile manufacturing and the ecstasy of the start.
The Berlin factory is Tesla's only manufacturing facility in Europe. On March 4, Musk finally obtained the final approval of the plant. Since Elon Musk announced plans to build a car and battery factory in November 2019, it has encountered multiple obstacles and finally achieved positive results.
The so-called "Xiangzhuang Dancing Sword" is intended to be Pei Gong. "Musk has already made a move, and next, it depends on Volkswagen and the BBA."
The first 30 Model Ys were delivered to customers, all of which were previously exported from the Shanghai Gigafactory. So, "It's a great day for the factory," Musk said, praising it as another step toward a "sustainable future."
In fact, the Berlin factory into production is too important for Tesla. According to JATO Dynamics, a British automotive data research firm, Tesla's share of the European pure electric vehicle market fell to 13.9% in 2021. In 2019, Tesla's market share in pure electric vehicles in Europe was 31%.
Europe, as the home of many established car companies, especially Volkswagen, accounted for 25% of the European electric vehicle market in the same period. This means that 1 in every 4 electric vehicles sold in the European market comes from Volkswagen.
The reason tesla's share in 2021 is almost half that of Volkswagen, of course, is due to excessive taxes and capacity restrictions on imports. The start of the Berlin factory is undoubtedly "a long drought and a good time" for Tesla, which has suffered from no European production capacity for a long time.
At the very least, Tesla's production of cars at its Brandenburg plant could save 10 percent on import duties. At present, the Model Y high-performance version exported from Shanghai to Europe is sold for up to 63,990 euros in the local area.
Photo| Musk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Not only Musk, but also German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the ceremony, believing it would boost East Germany's economy. For more than 30 years after reunification, East Germany was still catching up with wealthy West Germany. And the arrival of Tesla undoubtedly provides the best opportunity to surpass the West German region.
Therefore, Dietmar Wardek, the governor of brandenburg where the Berlin factory is located, once said: "Tesla will come to Brandenburg with a huge investment." We lobbied for a long time, engaged in intensive negotiations with Tesla, and put forward many reasons at the negotiating table. "Now that the Berlin factory is in operation, both sides are really happy.
Terrible opponents
With giga berlin fully operational, the acceleration effect of the Shanghai gigabercies will also be apparent.
In terms of technology, Tesla pioneered the use of a number of new technologies in the Berlin factory, including an integrated die-casting machine, "4680+CTC" integrated chassis battery pack technology and a new painting workshop.
In particular, the "unique" one-piece die-cast body technology, this design greatly shortens the production cycle, also reduces 370 body parts, and also reduces more than 300 industrial robots. To the awe of opponents, the average time to produce a Model Y body takes only 45 seconds, which is a terrifying industrial efficiency.
In addition, in order to further expand its advantages in Europe, Musk also intends to build the Berlin factory into the "world's largest power battery factory", and the annual output of the battery factory will exceed 250GWh. This means that after the localization of batteries and components, Tesla's local car manufacturing costs will further decline.
For Volkswagen, this is a terrible opponent. After all, Tesla's Berlin factory is only a few hours' drive from Wolfsburg, the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group, and it is better to snore next to the bed.
At this year's 2022 annual media briefing, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said that Volkswagen Group will spend 2 billion euros to build a new factory next to the Wolfsburg plant to produce trinity, the first Volkswagen brand model based on the SSP platform, "which is also an important measure for us to compete with Tesla's Brandenburg plant." ”
Moreover, this is not the first time that Dies or Volkswagen has named Tesla. Last year, in a letter to Volkswagen employees, It was mentioned: "Even if I don't talk about Elon Musk anymore, he's still there, completely changing our industry and rapidly becoming more competitive." ”
In addition, Volkswagen said it has received orders for 95,000 electric vehicles in the European market this year. However, judging from the sales of Electric Vehicles in Germany in February, Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y won the first and second places, which made the Volkswagen ID. series very uncomfortable.
However, with the increase in the number of competitors in the European car market, including the addition of New Car-making forces in China, Tesla will not be able to dominate in the short term. In 2019, there were 33 different pure electric vehicles on the European market, and after a year, this number became 57, and by 2021 it will increase to 74.
Figure | list of European electric vehicle sales brands in 2021
Therefore, since tesla "catfish" has blown up the spring water of this pool of European car markets, the things behind it will definitely become more and more exciting.
Significant expansion of production capacity
Interestingly, the production of the Berlin factory this time has released a lot of production capacity pressure from the Shanghai factory, which is also a good thing. Chinese users can receive their own Tesla orders as early as possible, without having to wait for more than 16 weeks (4 months) of pick-up cycles.
Take the data released by the Association of Automobiles, in January this year, Tesla's Shanghai factory produced a total output of 59,845 vehicles, of which 40,499 were exported, and only 19,346 were delivered in China. Therefore, after the Berlin factory is officially put into operation and the capacity is ramped up, this imbalance between supply and demand will be greatly improved.
At present, the cumulative annual production capacity of Tesla's three-seat gigafactory will exceed 1.5 million units. But Tesla didn't stop. According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, Tesla's production and sales scale can reach 2 million vehicles in 2022.
At the end of November 2021, Tesla also invested an additional 1.2 billion yuan to expand the Shanghai Gigafactory and increase the production capacity of the Model 3, Model Y and related derivative models. Meanwhile, Tesla's fourth plant, the Austin plant, is also under construction.
Moreover, the second phase of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory Project (Phase I) will be a rapid production line optimization project, starting in December and expected to be completed in April this year. Tesla estimates that after the completion of the optimization expansion, its production is expected to reach 1 million to 1.5 million units, achieving the goal of the world's largest electric vehicle production plant.
Not only that, according to the latest news from Reuters at the end of February, in order to meet the growing demand for new cars in China and the export market, Tesla plans to build a new factory in Shanghai as early as March. Once the new plant is fully operational, Tesla will have the ability to produce up to 2 million new cars a year at its Shanghai plant, and China's capacity will more than double.
Tesla's "appetite" is getting bigger and bigger, stemming from Musk's KPI for Tesla, reaching a sales target of 20 million vehicles in 2030. If you calculate it, the compound annual growth rate will exceed 50%. Still, no one will take Musk's ability to "brag." At the very least, the Berlin factory was launched, and Tesla's stock price immediately surged 7.9 percent, and its market value returned to trillions of dollars.
Tesla, which has been rushing all the way, is increasingly regarded as the "Apple of the automotive industry" by the industry and outside. When Apple announced the dissolution of the car-making project, Tesla's Berlin factory opened a big luck, "some people resigned and returned to their hometowns, some people missed the night to catch up with the science field", coupled with the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war that is breaking out, the new era is so unexpected and strange.
| Wang Xiaoxi |
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