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Inside the Gigafactory That Will Decide Tesla’s Fate
- chiph 10y agoNot so much "inside" as an overview. But the scale of the place is pretty impressive.
- mr337 10y agoI didn't realize of 15% of the building is done.That is crazy lol
- Bedon292 10y agoI had seen a few photos of it before, but I don't think I had fully grasped the scale until looking at these photos. I was always like: yeah that is pretty big. Then I realize those small things in the corner are semi trailers. And only 15% is done? That is crazy.
- dandermotj 10y agoThe entire scene - a gigantic white cuboid shape delicately placed between mountains and desert - is science fiction brought to life.
- concernedctzn 10y agoAnd maybe one day they'll build one on Mars
- trhway 10y agowell, the factory seems to be a leading prong of industrial sprawl into the wilderness there https://www.google.com/maps/@39.5117825,-119.4610767,21248m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.5117825,-119.4610767,21248m/... With the Gigafactory being probably an "anchor" business in that area, those mountains and desert may be changed soon.
- beaner 10y agoWhat are all those other buildings around it that look just as big, if not bigger?
- pavs 10y agoIf you zoom in you can see their name. Couple of names I picked up, are ware houses and distribution centers for ebay, wallmart, petsmart to name a few. The reason Gigafactory doesnt look as impressive compare to others because only 15% of GF construction has been done so far (according to Bloomberg Article). So the completed structure will easily dwarf everything else in the vicinity.
- leobakerhytch 10y agoIf you look at the corners of the plot, you can see the short sides of the octagon that the completed building will eventually become. Overlaid on the financial district of New York, for comparison: http://mapfrappe.com/?show=39101 http://mapfrappe.com/?show=39101
- bearcobra 10y agoThe scale of it is mind boggling. Not that the end product really dictates the size of the production facility, but this place will be larger than where they build 747s and A380s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings_in_the_world#Largest_footprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings_in_t...
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- wmf 10y agoNote that the Tesla car factory in Fremont and the Tesla Gigafactory in Reno are different.
- bearcobra 10y agoNoted, but I was more looking at the size of the Boeing and Airbus facilities. (Hoping my math is right) At 5.8 million sq ft it should have a footprint of 540,000 m^2, which would top that list.
- Mizza 10y agoAccording to Wikipedia, "it is the world's largest building by physical area and the second-largest building by usable space, smaller than only the Boeing Everett Factory."
- stcredzero 10y agoIf this works (disclosure: I think it will, and I've put money on it) then it will become a highly visible target, both literally and figuratively. If I were in charge, I would even make contingency plans for air defense.
- shirro 10y agoBiggest military power in the world by a large margin. Runs global unmanned drone operations that can kill anyone anywhere by executive order. In a post 9-11 world I think the risks are minimal. I would be more concerned about an industrial accident in a building that size. How much water would they have on hand for fire fighting in the middle of a desert?
- stcredzero 10y agoIn a post 9-11 world I think the risks are minimal. You have a point. I was thinking precisely of a 9-11 style attack, but this is harder to pull off. I would be more concerned about an industrial accident in a building that size. How much water would they have on hand for fire fighting in the middle of a desert? However, the fact that firefighting would be challenging in such a remote location is a point of vulnerability for it as a terrorist target.
- snovv_crash 10y agoPlease don't try to put out a Lithium fire with water.
- grecy 10y ago> it will become a highly visible target, both literally and figuratively. If I were in charge, I would even make contingency plans for air defense. You think that someone with the capability to attack the mainland US from the air is going to attack a factory of a private company that makes batteries? I'm betting that's not their first target.
- happycube 10y agoIt depends on how many get purchased for military applications. That and a large amount of Li-ion batteries going boom is quite a light show.
- epistasis 10y ago>with capacity to produce 35 gigawatt-hours of battery cells and 50 gigawatt-hours of battery packs per year. Edit: this post was a misunderstanding of the sentence. It's actually 35 GWh cells produced there, which are assembled, together with 15 GWh of external cells, into 50GWh of full battery packs. Whoa I thought total capacity was only 35 GWh per year, not 85 GWh/year. Massive amounts lithium ion batteries are even more feasible than I thought!
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- danhak 10y agoI think you're misunderstanding a bit. The factory will produce 35 GWh in cells per year and also receive 15 GWh in cells shipped in from other suppliers like Panasonic. Thus it'll produce finished packs totaling 50 GWh / year. In other words, total output of the factory is 50 GWh / year, 70% of which is vertically integrated.
- epistasis 10y agoOh, yes I did misunderstand that! I thought the "batterypack" part was referring to the Powerpack product. Thanks for the clarification.
- dsfuoi 10y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong, but in this scale model, I think the part of the building marked with a black rectangle (upper left) is what is currently being built. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-inside-tesla-gigafactory/img/gigafactorymodel_danab.jpg https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-inside-tesla-gigafac...
- robbiep 10y agoThat is astounding if correct
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- ksec 10y agoI really someone within the industry could tell us the secret source of Gigafactory. What EXACTLY is Tesla and Panasonic together doing that make battery cheaper possible? All these battery are already heavy into bots and automation with laser thin margin. They are already large in their scale, although nowhere near as large as Gigafactory. So how is it possible for company to squeeze even more efficiecy out of a well battled and automatize industry ?
- DiabloD3 10y agoEven more volume, but also not needing to drag them across the ocean. They get transported a few hundred miles instead of a few thousand.
- eru 10y agoThough, transporting across the ocean is virtually free, it's the changes of transport mode that cost.
- erikpukinskis 10y agoYou need less plastic to make one 64 ounce bottle than four 16 ounce bottles. You use one cap instead of four. And the overall surface area needed is less. That's really all there is to volume production, except instead of bottles, it's machinery, deliveries, shipping containers, production lines, work shifts, etc. Fewer machines per unit of product. Less surface area.
- DiabloD3 10y agoI read somewhere that a 2 liter soda bottle uses as much plastic as 20 ounce bottle, caps included on both, and the time and energy expenditure to actually manufacture then fill the bottle is the same on either.
- derefr 10y agoThis would be something specific to soda bottles, I would imagine: more (and thus more pressurized) CO2 gas will need thicker-walled bottles to hold it. I expect it's not true for other PET liquid containers, like for water/juice/etc.
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoJust saying - the canonical Edifice Complex gaffe was the Rouge River plant built by Henry Ford. (your humble narrator worked at a startup taken down by the Edifice Complex ) .
- rathish_g 10y ago"Outside" Giga factory
- justlsice 10y agoIt looks so cool.