On March 22, Local time in Germany, Musk officially delivered the first Batch of Model Y models manufactured in Berlin to 30 users at the Berlin factory, and in the process of delivery, Musk continued the tradition of delivery at the Shanghai factory and danced awkwardly again.
But for Tesla, the production of the Berlin factory is of great significance, Musk has also inserted a sharp knife in Europe, the birthplace of the automobile industry, with supply chain advantages and local government financial subsidies, Tesla's sales in Europe may grow again. How to deal with Tesla's challenge will become a difficult problem facing European car brands such as Volkswagen and BBA.
01 Production technology
The Berlin factory, Tesla's second overseas factory after the Shanghai factory, started construction just over a year later than the Shanghai factory, but the factory is a big step forward in the road of advanced manufacturing compared to the Shanghai factory.
The Berlin factory is highly automated, with 445 robots on the body-in-white production line alone. On a notice board at the site, it reads: "Robots can perform tasks such as welding, riveting and bonding auto parts." With their superior precision and fast movement, these robotic armies allow factories to produce a Model Y body every 45 seconds. ”
Based on this data, it was found that the Berlin plant could produce 700,000 cars per year at full capacity. Even if 10 percent of the robot maintenance time is thrown away, at least 600,000 vehicles can be produced per year, while Tesla's Shanghai plant currently has an annualized capacity of 450,000 vehicles.
Musk replied: "The Berlin plant is expected to achieve a 45-second continuous production cycle. On average, you can stay up and running 75% of the time per week. If it runs around the clock, it's about 10,000 cars a week. ”
In addition to the robots on the production line, another device that has attracted much attention is the large die casting machine.
In 2020, Tesla announced that it will use innovative car manufacturing methods to use single casting to directly cast more than 70 components in the lower half of the rear of the car to improve production efficiency. To achieve this goal, Tesla designed what is the world's largest die casting machine, equipped with this equipment in its factories in California and Shanghai.
The Berlin plant also applies this die-casting process. At the same time, Musk said that the front part of the Model Y model will also use the same process "soon" to further improve production efficiency.
The Berlin plant has currently the most advanced spray lines in the world, offering more layers of stunning colors that change subtly as the sun shines.
02Model Y configuration
1.4680: Third generation cylindrical battery
The Model Y produced at the Berlin factory will use a 4680 cell, which was released on Battery Day last year, tesla's third generation of cylindrical cells after the 1865 and 2170.
2. The battery pack is the chassis
"There's no need to put another box in the box, which Musk thought about when talking about the one-piece chassis battery pack, he said the inspiration came from the aircraft fuel tank. Early aircraft is to put a fuel tank in the wing, this design is like today's electric vehicle is to put a battery pack on the chassis, such a design for space is actually not used to the extreme, in the later development of the aircraft wings directly integrated fuel tank design, the wing is the fuel tank.
So Tesla put this idea into the battery pack, the chassis is the battery pack, the chassis into a part that can hold the battery.
The new battery pack no longer has a battery module, but directly covers the 4680 cell, which greatly reduces the middleware in the battery pack and improves the volume utilization rate of the battery pack.
The new battery system in the demonstration uses a liquid-cooled heat sink that is in lateral contact with the battery cell, and the two horizontal cells are arranged horizontally. This design is similar to that found in the 2170 battery system, but the 2170 battery pack is a large rectangular module with four vertical placements, so the liquid cooled flakes in the module are arranged longitudinally.
3. Front and rear integrated die casting
The Model Y produced in Berlin features an integrated die-cast body front and rear, which has better mechanical properties than those assembled with stamped parts, more lightweight and significantly more efficient. The physical form of the one-piece die-cast body on the Model Y looks like this:
After assembling with the body, it is as follows:
After the one-piece battery is packed with the lid, it looks like this:
After the combination of the front and rear integrated die-cast body and the battery pack is the following picture: an unprecedented load-bearing body developed entirely for electric vehicles.
The new structure has high structural strength and stiffness, musk said that the convertible with such a structure can have better rigidity than a non-convertible hardtop car, and after the battery cells are more concentrated, it also reduces the vehicle's moment of inertia, which is more conducive to handling and steering response. The combination of the three results in a 10% reduction in weight, a 14% potential for endurance improvement and, in a very rare case, a reduction of 370 body parts. After the significant reduction of parts, the corresponding production and manufacturing links of the vehicle have also been greatly reduced, such as the original rear body became a one-piece die-casting after the parts were reduced from 70 to 2, and the assembly line originally used for the rear body was simplified to a die-casting machine, and the factory could use more than 300 industrial robots in this simplification.
Source: Network, Automotive Technologist, Video Source: Tesla;