Tesla's largest factory starts! The three major black technologies were put into production, and they also had to build Martian pickups

Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)

Written by | Juice Alice Mumi

Edited by | Xiaohan

Tesla's Texas factory held a celebration, but Musk did not dance this time.

On April 7, US time, Tesla held a celebration called Cyber Rodeo in its newly built Texas factory, and Musk participated in the event and gave a speech.

▲ Musk debuted

Musk introduced the three black technologies of the new factory, namely 4680 battery, CTC technology and integrated die casting technology, the landing of these technologies can allow Tesla to improve production efficiency, the production capacity of model Y single car alone has reached 500,000 units / year, in addition to the cost of the vehicle can also be significantly reduced.

As the location of Tesla's new home (Tesla's headquarters has moved to Texas), the Texas factory has not only landed a number of new technologies, but also will produce a number of new models. Musk said that in addition to the production of Model Y, the plant will put into production of pure electric pickup truck Cyberteruck next year.

In addition, the Tesla electric truck Semi and the second-generation electric supercar Roadster will be produced at this plant.

With the official opening of this factory, Tesla has built four gigafactories around the world, and if they are all fully capacityed, the total output will be close to 2 million. According to Musk, the task this year is to increase production capacity, and when the production capacity is increased to a certain extent, a number of new products will be put into production next year.

Obviously, Musk is still holding back a big move, but for traditional car companies, Tesla's impact is becoming more and more intense, and the competition in the entire new energy vehicle market will be more intense.

First, the 4680 battery landed A number of new models will be produced here

Not surprisingly, Tesla's live broadcast event was once again delayed, and the activity that originally started at 10 o'clock did not appear until after 10:20.

▲Outside Tesla's Texas factory

However, the opening scene is very exciting. Before the official opening ceremony, a drone show was held on the spot. Through the arrangement and combination of drones, Nikola Tesla's photos, Model Y silhouettes, Cybertruck silhouettes and other patterns appear in turn.

▲ Drone show over the Texas factory

After the drone show, Musk wore a cowboy hat and sunglasses to drive a car officially debuted, in Texas, the home of cowboy culture in the United States, Musk obviously knows the truth of local customs. According to Musk, the car he is driving is the first car produced by Tesla.

Musk drives a vehicle to the stage

At the official beginning of the speech, Musk first thanked the Tesla team and showed Tesla's current product lineup, SEXY fleet, solar panels, supercharge piles and other products.

Musk's speech also continued the usual style, talking about some stuttering. Musk praised his own FSD beta, saying that FSD beta is 10 times safer than manual driving. At the same time, he also said that Tesla's autopilot team has completed an incredible job, and this year the FSD Beta will expand the scope of testing in North America.

Musk gave a speech at the scene

Musk said that Tesla has built 6 factories in China, the United States and Europe, including four gigafactories, and also has one factory in New York and Nevada.

As for why he chose Austin to build a super factory, Musk gave three reasons: First, the site is large, so he chose Texas. The second is the geographical factor, which can be 10 minutes to the airport and 15 minutes to the logistics center of the city. Third, there are many talents here.

Musk boasted that the Texas plant is the most advanced factory in the world and the largest factory in the world, and if the plant is erected, its height will be much higher than the world's tallest Burj Khalifa.

▲Texas factory size comparison

He gave a very humorous example, "According to our calculations, you can put 194 billion hamsters into this building." ”

Musk believes that the layout of the entire factory is like a chip, like an integrated circuit, the raw material enters from one side of the factory, and after passing the production line, the car will drive out from the other side of the factory.

▲Texas factory structure map

Subsequently, Musk also showed the internal division of the factory, can see the distribution of each workshop, and more importantly, this chart also shows that Tesla will produce 4680 batteries inside the factory. Musk said the plant could be the world's largest cell-producing plant.

The Texas plant will produce 4680 batteries

Another advantage of the Texas plant is that it can produce structured Packs that integrate cells directly into the vehicle chassis, the CTC technology previously discussed at the Battery Day event.

The oversized one-piece die-casting machine is also another very important design, Musk said, thanks to this product, the Texas plant alone has a production capacity of 500,000 Models per year.

In between speeches, several Model Ys from the Texas factory passed the stage in turn, and at the end of the team was a Cyberruck.

▲ The first Model Y produced at the Texas plant

After the car was parked on the stage, Musk joked that he could smash the glass of the car again. When the car was officially released, Musk said that the glass of the car could resist bullet shooting, and took an iron ball for experimentation on the spot, but embarrassingly, the glass of the car cracked on the spot under the impact.

▲ The glass was shattered when Cybertruck was released

Three years after its release, the car finally set a final production date. Musk explained that the Texas plant will produce Cyberteruck next year. Musk said: "Cybertruck always looks like CG in real life, but it is actually real. I can't wait for it to go into production, and Cybertruck will be an epic presence. ”

Musk then reviewed Tesla's car production in 2021, producing about 1 million vehicles in 2021, accounting for about 1% of the world's total car production. Musk is looking ahead to the future and strives for Tesla's production capacity to reach 20% of global car production in the future.

▲Tesla sales growth

Musk left some suspense at the opening ceremony, but he also said that in order to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, Tesla must do some "big things", such as the future Tesla is likely to launch Robotaxi.

According to Musk's vision, the main task this year will be to expand the scale, and next year will be intensive production of a number of new products, such as V1 Optimus (Tesla robot), Cybertruck, the next generation of Roadster and Semi models.

After the speech, accompanied by a symphony and fireworks display, Musk personally drove the Cybertruk off the stage and announced the official start of the party.

Musk exited the field in a Cyberteruck

Second, there are already four super factories with a full production capacity of nearly 2 million

After the official production and delivery of the Texas factory, Tesla has already owned 4 gigafactories around the world.

▲Comparison of Tesla's four factories

The Fremont plant in California is Tesla's foundation and Tesla's first gigafactory. The plant is also legendary in the U.S. automotive industry, which was founded in 1962 and has been part of General Motors for the next two decades.

Between 1984 and 2009, the plant was transferred to the new United Automobile Manufacturing Company (NUMMI), founded by Toyota Motor Corporation. In 2010, Tesla acquired the factory and became its third owner.

After more than two years of retrofitting, Tesla produced its first Model S here in June 2012, making mass production of electric vehicles a reality for the first time.

At that time, Tesla's Fremont factory represented the most advanced production technology in the electric vehicle industry, and as Tesla continued to innovate in production and manufacturing, 4680 batteries and integrated die-casting technology were also entering the factory.

This is also the factory where Tesla has put into production the most models, from the initial luxury electric vehicle Model S, Model X to the measuring artifacts Model 3 and Model Y can be produced in this factory.

Tesla's California plant currently employs more than 10,000 people and has an annual production capacity of nearly 450,000 units last year, making it the highest-volume car plant in the United States.

The Shanghai plant is Tesla's second factory in the world, and the plant has also set several records. The first is to set a record for the fastest production, in January 2019, Tesla's Shanghai factory broke ground, and in just ten months, during the National Day of that year, there was a Model 3 in the factory.

Musk spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony of Tesla's Shanghai Lingang factory

Secondly, the production capacity climb is also very fast, the first car was produced at the end of 2019, and in 2021, the production capacity of Tesla's Shanghai factory has reached 480,000 vehicles, surpassing the California factory and becoming Tesla's main production base.

The construction cycle of this factory is relatively fast, in the construction process, many of Tesla's new technologies have not yet been applied, but at present, large die casting machines have entered the factory, and the increase in production capacity has also played a certain role.

The Berlin factory and the Texas factory are almost two gigafactories that Tesla is advancing simultaneously, with the former starting construction in December 2019 and the latter starting construction in May 2020.

▲ Graffiti wall inside Tesla's Berlin factory

However, the construction process of the Berlin factory has gone through several twists and turns, first because the cutting of trees has been criticized by the German environmental protection department, so that Tesla has to promise to plant trees in other areas, and then the factory has also been shut down due to various events such as protecting animal species and affecting the water of local residents, and last year it was also affected by the epidemic.

This also led to the construction of the plant taking almost two years, which was not completed until the end of last year. After its completion, the Berlin factory faced the problem of approval, and it was not until last month that all the formalities were completed and the first delivery ceremony was carried out.

Musk danced at the delivery site of the Berlin factory

As one of Tesla's latest construction factories, the Berlin factory will take the lead in producing model Y, and many of Tesla's new technologies such as CTC technology and integrated die casting technology will also be implemented in this factory.

Although the construction process of the Texas plant is not as tortuous as the Berlin factory, it has also experienced the impact of the epidemic, resulting in slow progress, and it took more than a year from the start of construction in May 2020 to the completion of the plant.

This factory will be a testing ground for a number of tesla's new technologies, and from the information flowed out before, new technologies such as 4680 batteries, CTC technology, and integrated die casting technology will not fall into mass production here.

According to the plan, Tesla's Berlin plant and Texas plant can reach a production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, that is, tesla's production capacity can be increased to 2 million vehicles when all four factories reach full production.

Musk said at the 2021 earnings meeting that in order to achieve the goal of 50% annual sales growth, according to last year's 936,000 vehicles, Tesla's sales performance this year will hit 1.4 million vehicles, and whether this target can be successful depends on the ramp-up of production capacity in the Berlin factory and the Texas factory.

Conclusion: Tesla is about to burst into flames

In the past two years, Tesla has not put into production of new cars, but continues to expand production capacity, after two years of unremitting efforts, Tesla has four factories, but the expansion of the California factory and the Shanghai factory is still in progress.

These factories can achieve more than 2 million vehicles per year when they are fully produced, but this data obviously does not satisfy Musk, who said that Tesla will hit the sales target of 20 million vehicles in 2030. This also means that Tesla's current priority is still to increase production capacity.

With the successful experience of these four gigafactories, Tesla's fifth gigafactory, sixth gigafactory, seventh gigafactory... It should not be too far away, and the Tesla whirlwind will continue to blow wildly.

In the face of Tesla's strong attack, traditional car companies will be forced into a painful period.